Date: April 5, 2011
Address: 71 Thomas Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10013
Time: 9:30 A.M.
Courtroom 204
(New York, New York). This Tuesday, April 5, 2011, Justice Lucy Billings will hold hearings in the Ground Zero Mosque case, which was filed by Vincent Forras, a First Responder on September 11, 2001. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Mr. Forras by lawyer Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch, and is a class action. It alleges that the planned mosque and its imams have ties to terrorist interests and that the project, called the Cordoba Project, represents a security threat to the neighborhood and New York City as a whole. Indeed, there have been numerous terrorist attacks at Ground Zero, in addition to the heinous attack of September 11.
Mr. Forras’ lawsuit is based primarily on a nuisance legal theory and there is ample precedent to allow it to proceed. The case is not an attack on Islam, but the imam of the Ground Zero Mosque, Feisal Rauf, has in court pleadings branded Mr. Forras and Mr. Klayman as “enemies of Islam,” in an effort to play the race card and to coerce them to drop the suit. This attack was then published worldwide in various internet and other media outlets, subjecting Mr. Forras and Mr. Klayman to great risk from radical Muslim extremists.
The hearing is primarily based on the Defendants’ defense that First Amendment issues of free speech allow them to build the mosque at Ground Zero. However, Plaintiff contends that the First Amendment does not extend to national security issues. In this regard, Imam Rauf admitted on CNN at the outset of this controversy that if he does not get to build “his mosque” that there is a likelihood of radical Muslim terrorism at Ground Zero. This was a direct threat, in Plaintiff’s opinion.
To be argued at the hearing on April 5, 2011, is Defendants’ motion to dismiss and Plaintiff’s cross motion for sanctions for Imam Rauf inciting violence — in effect issuing a fatwah — against Mr. Forras and Mr. Klayman.
The hearing promises to be very contentious. If the case proceeds, discovery will ensue of the Ground Zero Mosque and Imam Rauf, among others, and Plaintiff will be able to “follow the money trail” to presumed terrorist related interests who are believed to be financing the Ground Zero Mosque.
A PRESS CONFERENCE BY PLAINTIFF WILL FOLLOW THE HEARING ON THE COURTHOUSE STEPS.
For more information, contact 310 595 5317 or email bcourtney.fw@gmail.com. To see the pleadings filed in the case, go to www.freedomwatchusa.org or www.unmasquethemosque.com. Mr. Klayman, formerly the founder of Judicial Watch and a U.S. Senate candidate, is the only lawyer ever to have a court rule that a president of the United States committed a crime, which occurred during the Clinton administration.