Imam plans tour for Islamic center
Rauf says he will visit several states, universities
NEW YORK – The Muslim cleric who hopes to build an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site said Friday that he’ll tour the country in an effort “to inspire interfaith understanding” for a project that has ignited explosive face-offs between supporters and opponents.
“The major purpose is to make people aware of what America means as a country that protects the right to freedom of religion,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told the Associated Press.
American Muslims like himself, he said, “can play an important role as interlocutors between the United States and the Muslim world.”
Rauf’s first appearance is scheduled for Detroit on Jan. 15. The city has North America’s largest Muslim population.
The imam said he’ll continue on to Chicago, Washington, San Antonio and college campuses including Harvard, Georgetown, Yale and the University of North Carolina. He did not release specific dates for his speeches.
Rauf said the Islamic center would be modeled on Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y – “a community space where people of all faiths can come to participate in everything from athletics to cooking classes, adult education programs, and panel discussions on issues of importance.”
There also would be theater productions and film screenings, he said.
Last summer, Rauf’s idea of constructing the high-rise Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from ground zero provoked a political firestorm that led to virulent demonstrations.
Opponents call it offensive to families of Sept. 11 victims and are demanding that the project be moved to another location.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed the center at the original proposed location. Despite opposition to the Islamic center, the imam is viewed as a moderate Muslim sponsored by the U.S. State Department to travel on behalf of the United States, tempering extreme positions in the interest of world peace.