Imam: Would not have backed plan near Ground Zero

The imam behind a proposed cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero would not have backed the plan had he known that it would stir such powerful sentiments and create an uproar, he said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"I would never have done it," said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. "I am a man of peace. I mean, the whole . . . objective of peace work is not to do something that would provoke controversy."

Rauf spoke on ABC News' "This Week with Christiane Amanpour." The imam made similar comments Wednesday on CNN's "Larry King Live."

In his interview with Amanpour, broadcast a day after opponents and backers of the cultural center and mosque demonstrated in lower Manhattan on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Rauf said he worries that failing to go forward at the proposed location would bolster Islamic extremists.

"My major concern with moving it is that the headline in the Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America," Rauf said. "This will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment; this will put our people - our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens - under attack."

When asked by Amanpour whether he still intended to build the cultural center and mosque at the proposed location near Ground Zero, Rauf said "the decision that I will make - that we will make - will be predicated on what is best for everybody."

The proposal was front-page news in The New York Times in December, Rauf said, and there was no backlash then. Since that time, he said, politicians have latched onto the project to serve their own ambitions. He called an appeal by Sarah Palin to reconsider, given the sensitivity many feel about the plan, "disingenuous, to a certain extent."

The controversy, he said, has raised concern among Muslims who sense a spike in Islamophobia that possibly exceeds the level seen just after 9/11. Still, Rauf said, American Muslims are thriving in this country and enjoy a system of laws that protects their religious freedom - something Muslims abroad need to recognize.

"We are doctors. We are investment bankers. We are taxi drivers. We are storekeepers. We are lawyers," Rauf said. "We are part of the fabric of America."