and in economic news, consumer spending were flat in june. a record low. that is it from cnbc. we are first in business worldwide. now it is back to hardball. welcome back to hardball, a plan to build an islamic center was approved today. is this center an insult to 9/11 victims and their families, or would it actually counter islamic extremism? dan is a poster of the location of the muslim center. senior council of the foreign relations. dan x thank you for joinging us. scott stringer is the manhattan bureau president. let s start what i would call the tolerant position.
okay. let him make his comments. dan, your proposal is for another meeting. after the meeting is over, what do you want to do? let s just i think there is the potential for leaders across the political spectrum in new york to say your motives are gad. some believe your motives are pure. okay. a meeting is fine. palin and the political operatives that are making people who live in my neighborhood, scott. they were invited to meetings. hundreds of people came to the local meeting and overwhelmingly voted for the proposal. people in your neighborhood said we need more police. we need more security. scott, scott it s not like you can have one and not the other. all the issues are compatible with one another. thanks for coming on.
a sense of tolerance. i can t believe this issue has gotten to this point that sarah palin and the people who want to buy this country are getting away with this. but i think today s landmarking commission decision, i think makes it very clear where new yorkers stand. and it s about a proposal for a peaceful center. that s why all of us are rallying behind this. dan, it seems to me the middle east is torn apart over particular sites. like the bern wall and the islamic sites. that s what war is all about. this particular site, that particular site. this bit of geography is fought over biblical reasons. now we re bringing that thinking over to america where particular sites or geographers gain a religious significance, and we fight over them almost to the death. that s what i wonder about. are we borrowg from the middle east and getting spoo that kind of warfare over block by block