Thaindian News

New York, Sept.10 (ANI): A lawyer representing one of the eight investors of the Park51 site where a propsed mosque and community center near Ground Zero is to come up, has described billionaire businessman Donald Trump’s offer to pay six million dollars to him as a cheap stunt.

Trump’s offer is a whopping 25 percent over the 4.8 million dollars developers paid for the building last year.

The offer came a day after a Park51 investor said he’s ready to sell what he claims is the majority share of the worn-down building for a healthy profit.

Trump wrote a letter to investor Hisham Elzanaty, that his offer was “not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation.”

But his offer came with a condition — Elzanaty must agree never to build a mosque within seven blocks of the former World Trade Center site.

Elezanty’s lawyer Wolodymyr Starosolsky said Trump’s offer was “just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight.”

Elzanaty did not return calls for comment Thursday, but said Wednesday he considers Park51 “a mere business transaction.”

Park51 officials, however, said Elzanaty doesn’t even have the authority to sell the building.

“Soho Properties controls the real estate which encompasses the Park51 project in lower Manhattan. Hisham Elzanaty is one of eight investors in the project,” spokesman Larry Kopp was quoted, as saying by the New York Daily News.

Trump first spoke against Park51 in August, calling it “insensitive” to 9/11 victims and their families.

Meanwhile, another first responder - Vincent Forras - sued the developer of the mosque, branding it a “monument of the jihadist’s victory over American ideals of freedom and victory.” (ANI)