New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has signed a pledge to support a group of construction workers opposed to a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero.

Wearing a hard hat, Paladino made the pledge while standing with a few construction workers across the street from the World Trade Center site Wednesday. He said if elected, he would use any legal means available to him to stop the construction of the mosque a couple blocks north of ground zero.

Paladino said there were “many, many alternatives” to stopping the project, including “bleeding” the developers “to death”.

Associated Press, 27 October 2010

You don’t need Ground Zero to stoke a New York mosque controversy. Residents of Selden, LI, have been swamped with fliers denouncing the expansion of the Islamic Association of Long Island.

The fliers list a litany of complaints, including calls to prayer being broadcast over loudspeakers and snarled traffic. The notes warn that the expansion of Long Island’s oldest Muslim house of worship will force residents to deal with “rude, aggressive people when you confront them to move their cars away from our driveways.”

Mosque members argue that the fliers are ill-informed attempts at fear-mongering and that the expansion is simply an effort to accommodate a burgeoning Muslim population in Suffolk County. Supporters say one flyer attempts to whip up hysteria by pointing out a child abuse rap against a former Mosque employee.

New York Post, 25 October 2010