The imam at the center of the controversy over what's become known as the "Ground Zero Mosque" — a YMCA-like Islamic center on property two blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center — says the project will not be stopped and that financial backers will be identified.
In an Op-Ed article on the New York Times website posted Tuesday night, Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam for the proposed Park51 community center, writes of his surprise at the opposition to the center — but is emphatic in saying the center will be built.
"I have been away from home for two months, speaking abroad about cooperation among people from different religions," writes Rauf, who has been on a goodwill mission sponsored by the U.S. government. "Every day, including the past two weeks spent representing my country on a State Department tour in the Middle East, I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels."
"We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House," Rauf writes. "More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons."
He also answers critics, such as gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio, who have called for an investigation into the funding for the Islamic center.
"I do not underestimate the challenges that will be involved in bringing our work to completion" he writes. "I know there will be interest in our financing, and so we will clearly identify all of our financial backers."
In the end, Rauf notes that the center could be a rallying point for a future filled with more understanding between all religions, writing, "How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?"
The $100 million project has been attacked by critics who say it would be insensitive or even provocative for an Islamic center to be built so close to the scene of the 9/11 attack.
But supporters say some politicians have wrongly commandeered the emotionally charged debate before U.S. congressional elections on Nov. 2.
President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said Muslims have a right to build the center.
Bloomberg has said that an investigation of the project would set a "terrible precedent."
Rallies for and against the cultural center are set for Saturday in New York after a memorial ceremony at the site known as Ground Zero for the 2,752 people killed when al-Qaida Islamist militants flew hijacked planes into the twin towers nine years ago.
