The thuggish, in-your-face aspect of the desire to build a mosque at Ground Zero has by now been amply documented: belying their claims to be building it only to affect reconciliation and peace, mosque leaders have smeared all opponents of the mosque as racists and bigots and refused all entreaties to put their mosque elsewhere.
And the thuggishness goes way back, apparently. The waiter-turned-millionaire developer (a transformation not yet satisfactorily explained) Sharif El-Gamal has said that "when you beat up someone physically you get exercise & stress relief," and it appears he spoke from experience. And the questions about his finances continue to grow more urgent.
"Sharif El-Gamal, developer of Ground Zero mosque, evicted from SoHo office for racking up back rent," by James Fanelli for the New York Daily News, September 15 (thanks to herr Oyal):
Sharif el-Gamal, developer of the mosque near Ground Zero, is being evicted from his office in SoHo for racking up $39,000 in back rent.The developer of the Ground Zero mosque is being bounced from his SoHo office, the Daily News has learned.
Sharif El-Gamal, who runs the real estate firm Soho Properties and is heading the project two blocks from Ground Zero, was slapped with eviction proceedings last month after tallying up $39,000 in back rent, a Manhattan Housing Court filing shows.
The management company that runs 552 Broadway, where El-Gamal leases space, said in the filing that he was warned in July and given until mid-August to pay up.
But when the August deadline passed, management company Royal Crospin Corp. filed the eviction notice.
It's not the first time El-Gamal's company has fallen behind in rent.
Royal Crospin sued Soho Properties last year for nearly $89,000 in back rent. El-Gamal's firm paid $56,000 to settle....
Create a huge debt and then settle for a fraction of the value. Chalk up the difference as jizya.
See, by not paying the Kuffar his rent and settling for 56,000 the Moslem cheated his way into 33,000 dollars. How much will he cheat the landlords this time in a new settlement?
For $39,000 the landlord should file a lien on 51 Park Place, and any other properties owned by Gamal or Soho...
This guy is a clown. Just a spoiled kid who has not yet arrived at adulthood, not to mention a deadbeat. He should get while the gettin' is good and walk away from this Ground Zero mosque atrocity. Is he smart enough to do so?
Hopefully he's more intelligent than he looks, but so far he has shown otherwise.
duh_swami, just what I was thinking! The court can lien that property.
All contractors who would even consider working on that Mosque should think twice, they will end up getting paid a fraction of what they bill.
Also, I read an article yesterday that Rauf is getting blasted for being a slum lord in NJ and hasn't paid the fines the city has imposed. I guess they feel no need to abide by their obligations.
And we should expect responsible, adult behavior from a mosqueketeer?
Ah, sometimes there's justice in the world.
I have bene working in a position a lot higher then a waiter but am not close to having a million dollers, not even close to half a million, or even a measly 50,000. how did he come across this fortune? If I were an investigator I would look for camel tracks, half eaten schwarma, and an oily petrol smell.
That was a joke, I know our best arab buddies are never investigated, they are free to do anything they want, free to buy anybody, and own anything here. Mums the word, no one has investigated them for anything, not clintons, not bushes, and certainly not o bowman.
Normally, I'd never wish this on anyone, but:
I hope he loses his house, too, and winds up a homeless bum.
Rauf --> el-Gamal --> Elzanaty
All three are involved in fraud and have been ripping off taxpayers for years. [Recall this recent galling headline Ground Zero Muslim center may get public financing]
Video report from Fox Expose on Sharif el-Gamal: Ground Zero Mosque Developer Sharif El-Gamal Exposed 8-25-1006:17
The actual developer of the GZ mosque, El-Gamal rose from waiter to real estate mogul with financial help from one “Hisham Elzanaty”
One of Mr. Elzanty’s companies was audited by New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General who found that the company was overpaid $331,336 for Medicaid services.
Elzanaty also was a financial supporter of Hamas through a muslim charity. Some are rallying to the defense of Elzanaty claiming that his donations could have not been knowingly made to Hamas as Holyland was only shut down in 2001.However the FBI investigation and Dep of Comm investigation has been known since 1994 and 1997. So the questions becomes who would donate to a charity under FBI investigation.
From Atlas:
Rauf, Alleged mortgage fraud, housing funds
LAN ASTASLEM
56K for 89 due, with more arrears piling up all the time. MSM is constantly settling for pennies on the dollar when it comes to the truth of Coach Rauf and his squad. Better be nice or you'll all get kicked out of the locker room and won't have access like your competition.
I guess they feel no need to abide by their obligations.
Those are obligations to an infidel, which is to say they are not obligations a Muslim need observe.
Shyster, Thug, Rip-off artist, Parasite, Deceiver, Con-man, Untrustworthy...
BUT - if "interfaith dialogue" is the goal, then all can be forgiven...right?
People of the Lie.
". . . radical Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood operate through many front organizations. Could the funding of the Ground Zero mosque be all part of an elaborate . . . shell game to cover up something far more sinister? . . . we won’t know until. . . el-Gamal and . . . Elzanaty begin to come clean about where their money is really coming from."
Throughout the Middle East and Asia, perhaps THE paramount social value is SAVING FACE. Muslims LIVE for pride and puffery and put huge amounts of energy into maintaining their standing in the social hierarchy, and trying to one-up each other, whether in terms of material wealth, piety, or things in-between.
The mosque developers so freely admitting they had only $180,000 pledged (or $10,000, or any of the other paltry sums bandied about); and the leaked "information" that key figures were worried that all the bad publicity would mean they they would not be able to collect funds to do the project - all this struck me from the very first as PURE TAQQIYA.
Two scenarios:
1. If fundraising were truly going POORLY, then SAVING FACE would require presenting a public image that all was going swimmingly. Under NO circumstances would these Muslim "leaders" admit to a position of weakness, because in their culture, they would be deemed incompetent losers. The Muslim-developers would instead spin themselves as fundraising wizards, consummate smart guys, charming and charismatic movers and shakers.
However, Muslims have learned some lessons of the West very well. In the West, we value and admire forthright admissions of obstacles faced and requests for assistance (big men ask for help). Clever, conniving (!) Muslims know that by publicly airing worry over potential fundraising problems with their important project , they will receive abundant concern and well-wishes from unbelievers, offers of help, and, I am sure, even dhimmi-money, from individuals and (horrors) government.
2. If fundraising were going WELL - via the front organization-system described above, or under-the-table monies (perhaps arranged while on the "goodwill tour" the good Imam took recently to the Middle East?), or the well-utilized hawala system ($100 million would set a record in hawala, doncha think?!), then, in order to deceive unbelievers, the Muslim developers would also profitably plead poverty. They would have taken care to spread the word among the influential Muslim community that fundraising was going well but that strategy considerations vis-a-vis the unbeliever community necessitated a different public posture. Little further explanation would be needed, since Muslims understand and appreciate this strategy.
Without fear, then, of losing face among Muslims who matter, the mosque-developers would set about exploiting Western psychology through deception, in order to benefit their interests. They would garner sympathy, practical assistance, donations from innocents, and, most important, largely avoid scrutiny of their funding sources, which might (!) reveal unsavory or even treasonous supporters.
Moral of the story:
A. Make this FACE-SAVING concept one of your most basic in understanding Muslims.
B. Hold up this FACE-SAVING PRISM to analyze all actions taken by the Cordoba Crew.
Dalaran: If/when that happens el-Gamal can expect no charity from his Muslim brothers.