Dubai: Plans to build an Islamic centre near the site of the September 11 attacks will continue, the Muslim preacher leading the project has said.
Imam Faisal Abdul Raouf, the chairman of the Cordoba Initiative and the imam of the Farah mosque in Lower Manhattan, has finally spoken out after remaining silent for weeks while touring the Middle East as controversy raged over plans to build the centre.
In an opinion article in The New York Times that appears in the Gulf News print edition on Thursday, Abdul Raouf said he plans to go ahead with the project "with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum".
God-given rights
During his visit to the UAE, Abdul Raouf said in a speech he gave at the Dubai School of Government, "Our rights are given to us by the Creator, not by any government". He also insisted that "Islam is very American".
Abdul Raouf expressed solidarity with those who lost their lives in the 2001 terror attacks.
"I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths ... We will accordingly seek the support of those families and the support of our vibrant neighbourhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community centre," he said.
To commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, Abdul Raouf called upon all Americans to pause, reflect and meditate, and to "tone down the vitriol and rhetoric that serves only to strengthen the radicals and weaken our friends' belief in our values".
This was a direct reference to Florida-based evangelical pastor Terry Jones' plans to burn the Quran on Saturday.
There has been global condemnation of Jones, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the planned burning ceremony "disgraceful".
European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton also roundly condemned the pastor, and the Vatican was clear in its condemnation, saying, "[Terrorist attacks] ... cannot be counteracted by an outrageous and grave gesture against a book considered sacred by a religious community".
