Nancy Pelosi Questions Funding of NYC Mosque Criticism
Updated 5:44 p.m. Eastern Time
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is raising questions about who is funding criticism of the so-called "Ground Zero mosque."
Pelosi told KCBS is San Francisco yesterday that she joins "those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded." She added: "How is this being ginned up?"
In a follow-up statement today on the project - an Islamic cultural center that includes a mosque called the Cordoba House that would be built two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks - Pelosi said the location of the project is a "local decision," though "the freedom of religion is a Constitutional right."
She said that she agrees with the Interfaith Alliance and Anti-Defamation League that the funding for the project should be transparent, as well as this portion of a statement from those groups: "At the same time, we should also ask who is funding the attacks against the construction of the center."
In addition, there are those on Pelosi's side of the aisle who have said the project should move elsewhere - including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
There is, it should be noted, at least some direct funding of the opposition -- a New Hampshire-based group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative is running ads opposing the project on New York City buses.
*correction: This post originally suggested Pelosi had stated "we should also ask who is funding the attacks against the construction of the center." It has been corrected to reflect the fact that she merely said she agreed with that statement.
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