VOA News Monday, August 30th, 2010
The imam behind a proposal to build an Islamic center near the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks says opposition to the project is linked to upcoming U.S. elections.
The comments by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf were published Monday in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National. Rauf is on a tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department to discuss Muslim life in the United States and promote religious tolerance.
Rauf said there is no doubt that election season has had a major impact upon the nature of the discourse about the Islamic center. The U.S. will hold congressional elections in November.
The imam told the paper that a small minority is leading the opposition to the center.
The proposed location is two blocks from where Islamic militant hijackers crashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center towers.
The $100 million center would include a mosque, sports facilities, a theater and a restaurant that would be open to all visitors.
Opponents say building an Islamic center so close to the site of the attacks would cause further pain to the relatives of the nearly 3,000 people who died there. Supporters say the project will help bridge divisions between the West and the Muslim world.
Rauf also said the struggle is not between Muslims and non-Muslims, but between moderates and radicals of all faith traditions.
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, federal agents are investigating a Saturday morning fire that damaged four pieces of construction equipment at the site of a planned Islamic center and mosque.
Investigators have not ruled out arson in the blaze in the city of Murfreesboro. A spokeswoman for the center told the Tennessean newspaper that the fire seems like it was intentionally set.
Some information in this story was provided by AP and AFP.
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