Palin says building mosque near Ground Zero is ‘unnecessary provocation’

NEW YORK - Former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said that plans for building a mosque near Ground Zero (the place where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood) is completely avoidable.

In Tweet released Sunday, Palin, who is seen as a potential 2012 presidential candidate, was quoted by Politico, as saying: “Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is unnecessary provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing.”

The building’s planners, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, have said it’s modeled on religious and community centers such as the YMCA. They further said that the 13-story, 100-million-dollar building would also include an arts center, gym and a swimming pool, as well as a mosque, and added that it would be two blocks away from Ground Zero.

The project received a renewed burst of national attention when CBS and NBC rejected an ad from the National Republican Trust PAC that crosscut footage of the 9/11 attacks with the sounds of Muslim prayer.

While a recent poll showed a majority of New Yorkers oppose the plan to build the mosque built near Ground Zero, an aide in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s City Hall hit back at Palin, saying that “she should mind her business.”

Andrea Batista Schlesinger followed that up with:”@SarahPalinUSA whose hearts? Racist hearts?”

Schlesinger deleted both tweets shortly after a call was placed to city hall asking for comment on them.

“Andrea was only speaking for herself, and she has the right to her own opinions,” said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser.(ANI)