Paterson offers land swap for Ground Zero mosque

Gov. David A. Paterson Tuesday offered to possibly provide state land if the developers of the controversial Ground Zero mosque and community center will relocate it.

Paterson said he is not against the complex being built two blocks north of the World Trade Center site, but he made the offer to help quell a national controversy over the proposed $100 million, 13-story project.

"I don't have any objection to it being built there, but I'm very sensitive to the desire of those who are adamant against it to see something else worked out," Paterson said.

"And frankly, if the sponsors are looking for property anywhere at a distance that would accommodate a better feeling among the people who are frustrated, I would look into trying to provide them with the state property they would need," he said.

Organizers of the project, Manhattan-based Park51 and the Cordoba Initiative, did not return messages seeking comment.

Cordoba leader Daisy Khan, a Jericho High School graduate, has said previously organizers do not plan to relocate - partly because they want to meet doubts about Islam head-on by placing the project near Ground Zero.

One relative of a 9/11 victim, Massapequa resident Rosemary Cain, whose firefighter son George Cain was killed in the attacks, said she welcomed Paterson's gesture.

"It might be a good way for them [the organizers] to bow out gracefully without having egg on their face," she said.

The mosque proposal has set off a national debate about America's constitutional commitment to freedom of religion and the concerns of family members that the proposed building is insensitive to them and would desecrate sacred land.