Imam Rauf 'exploring options' over NY Islamic centre

The cleric behind plans to build an Islamic community centre near Ground Zero says he is still "exploring all options" over the project.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said the plan would "bring honour to city of New York" and to Muslims around the world.

But speaking in New York he added that "everything is on the table" in a bid to "resolve this crisis".

Critics say building close to the site where almost 2,800 people were killed by al-Qaeda hijackers is offensive.


Thousands of people marched through New York on Saturday, on the ninth anniversary of the 11 September attacks, demonstrating both for and against the project.

The controversy over the cultural centre and mosque project was inflamed by a row over a Florida pastor's plans, later cancelled, to burn copies of the Koran on 9/11.

In remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr Rauf said he and the projects' other backers did not anticipate the outcry.

"We were surprised because when the news became public [in December 2009] nobody objected," he said.

He said if backers had known the level of protest it would provoke, they might have reconsidered.

On Sunday, Mr Rauf said the Koran-burning would have strengthened radical Islamic extremists and increased the danger of terrorist attacks against the US.

He also rejected claims by Terry Jones, the pastor behind the Koran-burning plans, that the bonfire was cancelled after Mr Rauf agreed to relocate the Islamic centre away from New York's Ground Zero.

"How can you equate the burning of any person's scripture with an attempt to build inter-faith dialogue?" Mr Rauf told ABC.

"This is a house with multi-faith partners, intended to work together towards building peace."

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Demonstrations over Islamic centre held in New York

Competing demonstrations have been held in New York on the anniversary of 9/11 over plans for an Islamic cultural centre close to Ground Zero.

Hundreds of people attended both demonstrations which became heated but passed off without violent incident.

The radical Dutch politician Geert Wilders addressed one demonstration, calling for an end to the plans.

The demonstrations were held after ceremonies honouring those killed in the World Trade Center nine years ago.

New York authorities blocked off the street passing the site of the proposed Islamic cultural centre, a short walk away from Ground Zero.

Mounted police and dog units patrolled the streets, keeping the protests separated in two pens a distance away from the site of the former World Trade Center.

The question of building a mosque and cultural centre so close to the scene of the devastation of the 2001 attacks has inflamed passions across US society.

The competing protests attracted people from many different groups, from anti-war activists to Hell's Angels, former US Marines to Buddhists.
'Fellow Americans'

Mr Wilders, a right-wing politician from the Netherlands who believes that Islam is comparable with Fascism, told the crowd that the planned cultural centre should not be allowed to go ahead.
Gert Wilders at the demonstration Mr Wilders is a controversial figure both in the US and the Netherlands

"We must never give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us, draw this line so that New York will never become New Mecca," he said.

The rally was also addressed by the former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton and other Republican commentators.

But others said campaigners against the mosque were part of a hate campaign against Muslims.

"I'm really fearful of all of the hate that's going on in our country," Elizabeth Meehan, 51, told the Associated Press.

"People in one brand of Christianity are coming out against other faiths, and I find that so sad, Muslims are fellow Americans; they should have the right to worship in America just like anyone else."

But anti-mosque campaigners, some holding plaques that read "never forget", said the plans were an insult.

"This is hallowed ground. It's something like Gettysburg or Pearl Harbour. Why did they have to do it here? Be a little sensitive," said Theresa Angelo, 57.

'Not ever'

At the earlier ceremony relatives read out the names of those who died when hijacked airliners hit the World Trade Center.
Some of the families said the argument between both sides was disrespectful of their families' loss.

But others said that "now was the time to speak out" against the planned Islamic centre.

Earlier, the pastor behind the threat to burn Korans in Florida said the event had been cancelled permanently.

"We will definitely not burn the Koran, no," the Reverend Terry Jones told NBC's Today show. "Not today, not ever."

Earlier, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed the mourners.

"No other public tragedy has cut our city so deeply, no other place is as filled with our compassion, our love and our solidarity," he said.

Speaking at a memorial event at the Pentagon, also hit by a hijacked plane on 9/11, President Obama paid tribute to those who died.

He said that while it was tempting to dwell on their final moments, the memorial events were taking place "to remember the fullness of their time on Earth".

Mr Obama also repeated his recent calls for unity, saying: "It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda."

"We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust."

Prominent New York Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is at the head of a group who plan to turn an abandoned factory building into a community centre and prayer space.

They say the centre will include facilities for all religions and be a place for reconciliation between faiths.

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US Prepares For 9/11 Aniversary 2010

President Barack Obama urged respect for other religious faiths after the threat, now on hold, sparked protests across the Muslim world.

The Florida pastor behind the threat has arrived in New York.

This year's anniversary is likely to be the most contentious and fraught yet, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan.
  
Once the city's official commemorations are over, rallies will be held both for and against the proposed Islamic community centre and mosque near Ground Zero.

Both sides want to use the emotion of the day to highlight their causes, our correspondent says.

Some relatives of the 9/11 victims says it is disrespectful to have a reminder of Islam by the place where so many died but other families support the project as an expression of America's commitment to freedom of religion.

Stephanie Parker, daughter of 9/11 victim Philip L Parker, attended a vigil in support of the Islamic centre near the site on Friday.

She said she had come to the vigil, which gathered about 2,000 people, because she was troubled by what she saw as people wrongly equating all of Islam with the hijackers.

"I think the anniversary is being overshadowed," she told the Associated Press news agency.

Sally Regenhard, who lost her firefighter son Christian Regenhard on 9/11, planned to attend both the ceremony in New York and the anti-mosque protest.

"The purpose is to speak out and express our feelings that this mosque, the location of it, is a grievous offence to the sensitivity of 9/11 families," she said.
Bells to toll

Four airliners were hijacked during the attacks in 2001, which claimed 2,975 lives, not including the 19 hijackers.

Two planes were crashed into the towers of New York's World Trade Center (WTC) and one into the Pentagon, while the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, after passengers apparently fought back.


Supporters of the planned mosque held a vigil on Friday evening

US Vice-President Joe Biden is to attend the official ceremony in New York at which the names of all the people who died at the WTC will be read out.

Houses of worship across the city have been asked to toll their bells at 0846 (1346 GMT), the moment the first hijacked plane struck the North Tower.

President Obama will attend the ceremony at the Pentagon and his wife Michelle will attend the event in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, along with former first lady Laura Bush.
 

     Pressure on pastor
Terry Jones arrives in New York's Laguardia airport, 10 September Police escorted Mr Jones after his arrival in New York's Laguardia airport

The controversial pastor, Terry Jones, said he hoped to meet a leading imam to discuss the proposal for the Islamic centre, to be located a short distance from Ground Zero, the WTC site.

He said he had suspended the book-burning only because he had received a guarantee, from an imam in Florida, that the centre would be moved.

But the planners of the Islamic centre have said they did not speak to the Florida imam, and would not be moving their project.

Koran-burning row timeline

    * July Terry Jones announces his church in Gainesville, Florida, will stage International Burn a Koran Day. National Association of Evangelicals asks the church to call off the event
    * 18 August Gainesville Fire Rescue denies Mr Jones a fire permit, saying the church will be fined if it goes ahead.
    * 6 September Top US commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus warns that burning could put troops' lives will be in danger
    * 8 September Vatican condemns bonfire plans as "outrageous"
    * 9 September US President Barack Obama joins international condemnation. Mr Jones then says he has cancelled the burning, before saying it is only suspended.
    * 10 September Protests break out in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and President Barack Obama calls for religious tolerance in the US
      

Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the proposed centre, said on Friday that he was "prepared to consider meeting with anyone who is seriously committed to pursuing peace" but added that he had no current plans to meet Mr Jones.

Mr Jones is the pastor of the tiny and previously little-known Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, and author of a book entitled Islam is of the Devil.

He had planned to stage an International Burn a Koran Day on Saturday, saying the book was "evil".

But pressure was put on the pastor to cancel the burning. The FBI visited Mr Jones to urge him to reconsider his plans and he was telephoned by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

In his remarks on Friday, Mr Obama denied that his administration's intervention in the affair had elevated it to greater prominence.

He appealed to Americans to respect the "inalienable" right of religious freedom and said he hoped the preacher would abandon his plan to burn the Koran, as it could add to the dangers facing US soldiers serving abroad.

"This is a way of endangering our troops, our sons and daughters... you don't play games with that," he told reporters.

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