Washington, Aug. 14: The US President, Mr Barack Obama, on Friday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural centre near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York — a project opposed by US 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,” Mr Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the US Muslim community.
“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre 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 centre, which will include a prayer room, two blocks from the site of the September 11 attacks, popularly known as “Ground Zero.”
“This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable,” said Mr Obama, who has made improving ties between the United States and the Muslim world a cornerstone of his foreign policy.
Mr 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 September 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 US 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, Ms Sarah Palin and Mr Newt Gingrich, a Republican former Speaker of the House of Representatives, also have called for the project to be scrapped.
Mr Mark Williams, a spokesman for the conservative Tea Party political movement, said the center would be used for “terrorists to worship their monkey god.”
The President stressed that al Qaeda was not synonymous with Islam. “Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam ,” he said.