33. Cordoba House and the JCC, with Rabbi Joy Levitt and Daisy Khan

In 2009, plans were announced to convert a building in Lower Manhattan into a center for the Muslim community called Cordoba House. Among the leaders of the project were Daisy Khan and her husband Feisal Abdul Rauf, a sufi imam. Khan, a native of Jumma and Kashmir, was the leader of two non-profit organizations, Musilim Leaders of Tomorrow and the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality. In planning the center, Khan reached out to Rabbi Joy Levitt, then the Executive Director of the JCC in Manhattan, for advice both large and small. What resulted was a friendship that sheltered both through the cultural storm that erupted around the community center, which became known for a brief time as the Ground Zero mosque, due to its overstated proximity to the 9/11 site. In today’s episode, we’ll hear Joy and Daisy recall that turbulent time, and how one project designed to benefit an entire population blew up as a result of the country’s increasing polarization. To watch Joy and Daisy on This Week with Chistiane Amanpour, visit https://youtu.be/fE_XnmQRDPA