(JTA) Eleven years ago, the Anti-Defamation League surprised many by opposing an Islamic center planned for Lower Manhattan, blocks from the World Trade Center site [of] the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even as its leader denounced anti-Muslim bigotry.
Now, the ADL’s CEO says the position, taken four years before he joined the civil rights organization, was a mistake.
“We were wrong, plain and simple,” Jonathan Greenblatt wrote in an op-ed published Saturday morning on CNN.
Greenblatt said the group had tried to offer a compromise by supporting the ideas behind Cordoba House, described by its leaders as a prayer space that would facilitate healing and cross-cultural understanding, but recommending that it not be located near Ground Zero. But that compromise hurt Muslims, he said, and ultimately contributed to the project yielding a condo building with little from the original proposal in place.
