Imam defends mosque near Ground Zero before board

Lower Manhattan Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will not back down from his plans to open a mosque and an Islamic center near Ground Zero, even as he was booed at a raucous community board meeting on the issue Tuesday.

"We are part of the community. We have been here - I have been here for 27 years and it is our right. We don't need permission from anyone," Rauf said before the meeting, in one of the first interviews he has granted since the controversy erupted.

About 200 people attended the Community Board 1 meeting, where emotions ran high, and Rauf and others were the targets of heckling. Late Tuesday night, board members were debating whether to table the resolution to support the project and consider it at a later date.

The project is spearheaded by the imam with the support of elected officials and Jewish religious leaders. The community board's vote, while not necessary for the mosque and center to move forward, is viewed as important in gaining residents' backing.

C. Lee Hanson, 77, of eastern Connecticut, whose son died on Flight 175, one of the two planes to hit the Twin Towers, spoke at the meeting, saying, "If you are against it, they're calling you a bigot. I'm not a bigot. I'm opposed to the mosque because its in poor taste."

Rosemary Cain, of Massapequa, sat with a photo of her son George, a FDNY firefighter who died on 9/11. "I'm not against a mosque. It's the location which has caused so much heartache. Why here?" she said.

But Kevin Madigan, who ministers to many 9/11 families and is a pastor at St. Peter's Church, across from Ground Zero, said he supported the project. "I'm for it. It's a mainline Islam group. And this is about working together," he said.

In the interview, Rauf said his own congregation was affected by 9/11. "We had 200 people who bled and died on 9/11. We gave water to firefighters; doctors from the community volunteered to be medics. We are part of the 9/11 family," said Rauf, reiterating his plans to put a memorial inside the Islamic center with the names of 9/11 victims.

The imam's congregation will have to raise $105 million to open the 13-story Islamic center, where it is expected prayer services will attract about 2,000 worshipers. The center will also have a swimming pool, a 500-seat auditorium for cultural events and lecture forums for interfaith religious leaders. The center will be open to everyone, he said.

Rauf said the mosque will not open on the anniversary of 9/11, and that it will take between 18 months and three years before the money is raised to open the center at the old Burlington Coat Factory building on Park Place, which was damaged on 9/11. Rauf said the building will either be demolished, or renovated depending on a pending landmark status application.

At a recent prayer service, the imam asked for $100 donations from the membership, which he said included 400 who celebrate Friday prayer services in the building. "We don't want outsiders to tell us what to do," Rauf said.