Governor and archbishop meet over mosque

Alarmed at rancor over a proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan, Gov. David A. Paterson and Archbishop Timothy Dolan met for about a half-hour Tuesday, with both men calling on all sides to conduct positive discussions.

Following the meeting, Dolan said neither man had any quick fix or plan to resolve division over the center's planned location two blocks from Ground Zero.

"We got two goods here - the good of cherished American freedom of religion and the wonderful hospitality of New York, and the other good is the understandable, tender sensibilities of those families who are grieving [after 9/11]," Dolan said.

Emphasizing he had no view on whether the center should move, the Catholic leader said he thought it was an idea worthy of further examination. He suggested as much last week when he referred to the way Carmelite nuns in Germany decided years ago, after Pope John Paul II spoke out, to quash plans to put a cross near the Auschwitz concentration camp following Jewish groups' concern it would be too close to their place of past suffering.

At a news conference before the meeting, Paterson said he found it "heart-wrenching" to see New Yorkers squaring off over the Islamic center. "I think the major issue today is to get everyone to take a step back," Paterson said.

At the same news conference State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), urged the center's developers to take a second look at the project's siting. "The center as it's advertised is supposed to bring people together," Silver said. "I think the sponsors should take into serious consideration the kind of turmoil that's been created and look to compromise."

Last night, at a Ramadan dinner he hosted at Gracie Mansion, Mayor Michael Bloomberg reiterated his position on the issue, saying to force the project to move "would compromise our commitment to fighting terror with freedom."

"We would feed the false impressions that some Americans have about Muslims. We would send a signal around the world that Muslim Americans may be equal in the eyes of the law, but separate in the eyes of their countrymen. And we would hand a valuable propaganda tool to terrorist recruiters, who spread the fallacy that America is at war with Islam," he continued.

Daisy Khan, a spokeswoman for the project, said last week talks were under way with some victims' families, and she kept open the possibility the facility could be moved.

With James T. Madore

in Albany