Obama backs controversial New York mosque project

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President Barack Obama yesterday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim  cultural center near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in  New York — a project opposed by U.S. conservatives and many  New Yorkers.

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have  the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in  this country,” Obama said to applause at an event attended by  diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim  community.

“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a  community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in  accordance with local laws and ordinances,” he said, weighing  in for the first time in a national debate that has grown  increasingly heated in recent weeks.

Earlier this month a New York city agency cleared the way  for construction of the community center, which will include a  prayer room, two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks,  popularly known as “Ground Zero.”

“This is America and our commitment to religious freedom  must be unshakable,” said Obama, who has made improving ties  between the United States and the Muslim world a cornerstone of  his foreign policy.

Obama was speaking during an Iftar dinner he hosted at the  White House. Iftar is the evening meal when Muslims break their  daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

About 2,750 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks,  when al Qaeda hijackers crashed two passenger planes into the  twin towers of the World Trade Center. The attacks deeply  traumatized Americans and sparked the U.S. invasion of  Afghanistan and the Bush administration’s “war on terror.”

Many families of those killed in the attacks have mounted  an emotional campaign to block the community center, calling it  provocative and a betrayal of the memory of the victims.

Conservative politicians such as former Republican vice  presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, a  Republican former Speaker of the House of Representatives, also  have called for the project to be scrapped.

Mark Williams, a spokesman for the conservative Tea Party  political movement, said the center would be used for  “terrorists to worship their monkey god.”

In his remarks on Friday, Obama preached the need for  religious tolerance and noted that the First Amendment of the  U.S. Constitution had established the freedom of religion, “and  that right has been upheld ever since.”

The president also stressed that al Qaeda was not  synonymous with Islam.

“Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam — it is a gross distortion  of Islam,” he said. “These are not religious leaders — these  are terrorists who murder innocent men, women and children.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has firmly supported the  community center project as have many religious organizations  in the city. However, 53 percent of New Yorkers oppose it,  according to a Marist Poll this week.

The Cordoba House community center is the brainchild of  Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who told Reuters in an interview last  month that he had modeled it on the Young Men’s Christian  Association.

Now simply called the Y, YMCA facilities across the United  States offer exercise classes, education and community  activities.

The city agency’s Aug. 3 ruling is expected to clear the  way for construction of Cordoba House, which will include a  500-seat auditorium, art exhibition spaces and a swimming pool  as part of a 13-story complex.

Since coming into office, Obama, a Democrat, has worked to  reach out to Muslims, many of whom felt targeted by the “war on  terror” and by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.