Report: Eight Investors Contributed to Purchase of Ground Zero Mosque Building

OK, so now we know two of the eight investors for the Ground Zero Mosque. One is a former waiter with a lengthy arrest record and the other is a Medicaid scam artist who's given money to the Hamas front group Holy Land Foundation. Then there's the (ahem) moderate imam who's got the hots for the Iranian mullahs.

Now for a rather dubious crew who claim they want to build bridges and be open about their business, why are they hiding the identity of the other six investors?

Eight investors contributed to the $4.8 million purchase price of the building for a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the developer of the site confirmed on Friday.

The eight investors include Hisham Elzanaty, an Egyptian-born Long Island resident who donated $6,000 to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in 1999, a group shut down by federal authorities two years later for donating to Hamas.

Mr. Elzanaty gave restricted money to the group for orphans, unaware of its links to Hamas, according to Park51, the group behind the proposed 13-story center in downtown Manhattan.

"Hisham is a major investor in the Park51 project," said Sharif El-Gamal, the developer and founded of SoHo Properties in a statement. "He is one of eight investors all whom agree with me that this project will not be funded in anyway from any country, terrorist organization or entity hostile to America or its values."

Messrs El-Gamal and Elzanaty are the only Muslims among the group of eight investors, according to a source familiar with situation. Mr. El-Gamal has declined to release the names of the other investors.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Elzanaty said, "I'm very tired emotionally and physically from all of this and I'm very concerned about my family because of this ."

Aw, the poor thing is tired. Just imagine how tired he be if the media had done their homework and discovered Elzanaty's identity way back when all the hubbub commenced?

"We are under a crisis right now," he told the crowd of worshipers. "You're reading about it every single day. And this is for you and your family and ….children. And it's only going to happen brick by brick, dollar by dollar."

Yeah, well critics are going to be silent until we know who the other investors are, and I suspect opposition will become even more fierce once we find out who they are. Otherwise they'd have told us already.

Considering his vociferous support for the mosque, I wouldn't be shocked to see the name Bloomberg on the list.