Panelists spar over Downtown mosque

The Observer’s Dana Rubenstein, who profiled Park51 mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal earlier this week, appeared on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” this morning to discuss the controversial project and the intentions behind it alongside Tim Brown, an advocate for 9/11 families who opposes the mosque, and Azeem Khan of the Islamic Circle of North America, who is in favor of it. El-Gamal, who is originally from Brooklyn, didn’t intend to provoke anyone, according to Rubenstein, who notes in the video above that he had lived and worked in Lower Manhattan before buying the building for $4.85 million in July 2009. He had noticed that the mosques in the area — another one is just four blocks from Ground Zero, compared to Park51’s two blocks — were overcrowded and that there was a need for a new one.