'He's a Terrible Landlord Who's Unresponsive to the Residents Who Live in His Building'

Looks like the enablers of media darling Imam Rauf are going to have to find some creative spin to explain this away. The silence from Imam Bloomberg is deafening.

The religious leader behind the proposed mosque near Ground Zero has been slapped with a lawsuit in Union City, NJ, where officials have accused him of ignoring dozens of violations at two rundown apartment buildings he owns.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's buildings, with a total of 48 apartments, have been the targets of more than 30 health and safety complaints, among them mold, uncollected garbage, bedbugs, odors, dirty hallways and a lack of heat, the lawsuit says.

One of the buildings has been boarded up by Rauf since a blaze on Feb. 8, 2008, that broke out after Union City had issued a dozen fire-code violations there.

"He's a terrible landlord who's unresponsive to the residents who live in his building," Mark Albiez, a spokesman for Union City Mayor Brian Stack, told The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, which first reported the lawsuit.

The Post last month interviewed tenants at Rauf's buildings on Central Avenue in Union City, and heard complaints about rundown conditions.

"Nothing gets done. We have to go through City Hall to get things done," said tenant Jamie Barillas.

Amazing how not a single interviewer asked him about any of this while he's been making the rounds.

Meanwhile, Rauf's thug pal Sharif El-Gamal is another deadbeat who's gotten the boot from his office for failing to pay his rent.

Soho Properties and is heading the project two blocks from Ground Zero, was slapped with eviction proceedings last month after tallying up $39,000 in back rent, a Manhattan Housing Court filing shows.

The management company that runs 552 Broadway, where El-Gamal leases space, said in the filing that he was warned in July and given until mid-August to pay up.

But when the August deadline passed, management company Royal Crospin Corp. filed the eviction notice.

It's not the first time El-Gamal's company has fallen behind in rent.

Royal Crospin sued Soho Properties last year for nearly $89,000 in back rent. El-Gamal's firm paid $56,000 to settle.

So exactly how are these two grifters going to raise $100 million to build the Ground Zero Victory Mosque?