Imam says resolution to New York mosque debate in works

New York: The imam leading the campaign to build an Islamic centre and mosque near the site of the attacks which took place on September 11, 2001, said Monday that a solution to the raging debate about its location was being considered.

Imam Faisal Abdul Rauof, who hopes to build an Islamic community centre near the World Trade Center site in New York City, said he was "exploring all options" for the project.

The imam, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said "everything is on the table". He also said that "radical extremists have hijacked our discourse".

Rauof spoke two days after ceremonies, as well as protests for and against the centre, were held at the three US sites where terrorists crashed hijacked planes on September 11, 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.

Asked if the project was needed and if it was worth the "firestorm" it had created, the imam said the answer was "a categorical yes," though he wasn't referring specifically to the centre's proposed location.

"There's a need for the centre to provide a place for all faiths to come together and achieve mutual understanding," the imam said. "The centre will help foster dialogue and explain Islam, and will give moderate Muslims a voice."

Rauof proposed that the mosque be built on the site of a derelict clothing store two blocks from Ground Zero — the name given to the site of the Twin Towers destroyed in one of the attacks. It was a way to give Islam a new face in the United States, he said.

"My major concern with moving it is that the headline in the Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America. This will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment," the imam told ABC.

"This will put our people — our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens — under attack in the Muslim world and we have expanded and given and fuelled terrorism."

The imam said there was a "growing Islamophobia" in America, but said that contrary to the claims of radical Islam, Muslims in the United States were free to observe their religion, and were happy and thriving.