It's All In What You Call It

“Park51,” originally named Cordoba House and controversially referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque", is a planned 13-story Islamic community center and mosque to be located about two blocks from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. It would replace an existing 1850s Italianate-style building that was being used as a Burlington Coat Factory before it was damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The proposed facility's design includes a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, art studio, food court, September 11 memorial, and prayer space that could accommodate 1,000–2,000 people.

Using “Cordoba” in the name of the mosque project is not coincidental.  Cordoba was an area of Spain conquered by Muslims in the 8th century.  It was at Cordoba that the Muslims established a caliphate or Islamic seat of government.  A mosque was built on top of a foundation of a Christian cathedral.  Later in the 13th century, the Muslims were driven from Cordoba and the mosque was converted back into a cathedral. 

In an article written by J.E. Dyer (http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/02/a-choice-of-names-tours-house-lepanto-house-or-vienna-house/), he explains that

“Cordoba,” in Islamic symbolic terms, means Islamic rule in the West.  It does not mean “coexistence,” unless coexistence is interpreted as referring to Islamic rule.  Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs cites [an] article (original in Arabic) published by Iraqi-American [columnist] Khudhayr Taher on 18 May [in the Arab online liberal daily Elaph.com], in which Taher explains the following:

We must note that a hostile and provocative name [Cordoba] has been chosen for this mosque…Choosing the name ‘Cordoba House’ for the mosque to be constructed in New York was not coincidental or random and innocent. It bears within it significance and dreams of expansion and invasion [into the territory] of the other, [while] striving to change his religion and to subjugate him…