Sharif el-Gamal, the developer of Park51, the planned Muslim community center and mosque at 45 Park Place in Lower Manhattan, said he hopes to finance much of the $140 million project "using instruments developed to allow many Muslim investors to comply with religious prohibitions on interest," according to an article by Anne Barnard in today's edition of The New York Times.

Mr. Gamal indicated he "envisioned raising $27 million through a nationwide campaign focused on small donations from Muslims and other supporters, and financing much of the rest that consultants estimate it will cost to build the 15-story center," the article continued, adding that he "is counting on the center's eventually having about 4,330 paying members, about half of them paying $2,700 a year for the most expensive family plan, which would include use of a planned fitness center and pool."

"Most of that core group" he continued, "would be non-Muslim neighborhood residents and commuters. Muslims from around the region would make up a larger but less frequently visiting group - what he calls the 'dinner and a date' crowd - many of them choosing the cheapest $375 family membership for cultural programs.

"Most of the financing," Mr. Gamal said on Wednesday, "would come through religiously sanctioned bond-like investments known as sukuk, devised in Muslim nations to allow religious Muslims to take part in the global economy and increasingly explored by American banks. Sukuk and other Islamic banking instruments are tracked on the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index. In sukuk construction projects, the investors own the real estate asset, and the developers lease it back; the investors' profit on the rent is analogous to the yield on a bond. Some Islamic scholars do not accept the system, but it is widely used in places like Malaysia and Dubai."

The article said that Mr. Gamal "restated his hope of getting the bonds issued tax-free through a public development authority, but said he would do so privately - which would require higher payments to investors - if that was not possible. Besides individual investors, Mr. Gamal said he would court corporations interested in tapping Muslim-American markets, foundations that finance international development, and Jewish, Christian and Muslim philanthropists."

The prayer space, whose construction cost is estimated at $17 million, would tentatively be placed in the basement. The article noted that "Technically, it would be a musalla, because its construction would not meet religious rules required to sanctify a mosque; it is not uncommon for a Muslim congregation to pray in such a space but call it, colloquially, a mosque, or, in Arabic, masjid."

On the upper floors there would be a 9/11 memorial and prayer space, open to people of all faiths for prayer, contemplation and meditation.

A rendering of the proposed project by SOMA architects was shown briefly on "60 Minutes" last Sunday and it indicated that the building would have a very handsome white facade with deep geometric cutouts somewhat like some screen facade designs by Edward Durrell Stone and typical of many Islamic buildings.