Saturday, May 8, 2010

Who is funding the $100 million mosque going up at 'ground zero' in New York?

The Associated Press reports that the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative are the two organizations sponsoring the project. We were curious about the funding for this project.

The Cordoba Initiative (founded 2004) last filed an IRS Form 990 in 2008 showing revenues $0, expenses $2767, and net assets of $18,255.

The American Society for Muslim Advancement (founded 1998) has apparently never filed an IRS Form 990. Their website shows that the last event they held was in May 2007.

Small tax-exempt organizations whose annual gross receipts are normally $25,000 or less usually file IRS Form 990-N (e-Postcard) — a relatively recent requirement — which does not require the reporting of financial information.

An organization that "fails to file required e-Postcards (or information returns – Forms 990 or 990-EZ) for three consecutive years will automatically lose its tax-exempt status."

5 comments:

Yawar said...

Those who think that a $ 100 million Islamic center is going to change the minds of people that Islam is a wonderful way of life - need their heads examined. For a community which has so many critical needs for education, food, relief from oppression and global information sharing and which is so resource starved, to spend $ 100 million, is highly unjustified. I hope someone will have the good sense to put a stop to this.

Moderator said...

This article http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010051410192/homeland-security/ground-zero-mosque-developer-and-muslim-brotherhood.html has info on funding sources. Can't vouch for its accuracy, and the source has a strong bias as you'll find out.

Anonymous said...

What utter nonsense! Keep on believing in mass media hypnosis. There is no such 100 million dollar with any of the Islamic organizations except perhaps the thugs of the middle East dictators. The muslims in the US are for the most part first generation immigrants that are not organized politically and at best run mosques on shoe string budgets. Most of these immigrans are either too smart for their home countries and have the 'good' jobs on merit or too dumb yet live comfortably here in the US working 10-12 Hours a day. Visit any of the prayer places and you will see for your self what I mean.

Moderator said...

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010051410192/homeland-security/ground-zero-mosque-developer-and-muslim-brotherhood.html

. . . in July 2009, he bought a future mosque site at 45 Park Place for $4.58 million in cash from the heirs to New York's Pomerantz family. . . .

Imam Rauf says that New York Muslims provided nearly $5 million in cash to buy the Park Place building. Yet in fiscal 2009, Rauf's ASMA received large international donations. In the year ended June 30, 2009 - days before Feisal closed the purchase - ASMA received at least $1.3 million. The largest donation, $576,312, came from Qatar. . . .

ASMA also received $481,942 from Holland's Millennial Development Goals Fund (MDG3), $144,752 from New York's Carnegie Corporation, $53,664 from the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), plus donations from the Rockefeller Brothers and Hunt Alternatives funds, among others.

Moderator said...

Manhattan community board backed a proposal to build a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/nyregion/26muslim.html?hp