The New York Daily News reports that the financial district committee of the Community Board 1 in Manhattan has unanimously endorsed the erection of a 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center.

The Cordoba House is a $100 million project that is being proposed for the former Burlington Coat Factory building at Park Place and Broadway, a location that is two blocks away from where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Committee Chairman Ro Sheffe shares: “I think it will be a wonderful asset to the community.”

The Cordoba Initiative was founded after the 9/11 attacks, and according to Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, one of those who helped found the initiative, the Cordoba House aims to foster better relations between Muslims and the West. The project consists of a glass and steel building that will house a 500-seat performing arts venue, a swimming pool and a basketball court. Rauf gushed that there will be “nothing like it” and that it will be open to all New Yorkers.

Islam, however, is a religion that is unsurprisingly associated with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, and despite the knowledge and the realization that it is incorrect to give a sweeping generalization of all Muslims, those who lost loved ones during the attacks are not too keen about seeing a mosque in the area.

Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, who lost his son Jim, a firefighter, during the attacks, said: “I realize it’s not all of them, but I don’t want to have to go down to a memorial where my son died on 9/11 and look at a mosque.”

The Cordoba Initiative hopes to break ground on the project by 9/11/2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks. An estimated 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims are expected to pray in the Mosque on Fridays.