Mosque fight is over more than 'a piece of real estate'

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The imam leading plans for an Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York said yesterday the fight is over more than "a piece of real estate" and could shape the future of Muslim relations in America.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told a group that included professors and policy researchers in Dubai in his last scheduled public appearance during a 15-day State Department-funded trip to the Middle East intended to promote religious tolerance the dispute "has expanded beyond a piece of real estate and expanded to Islam in America and what it means for America."

His comments came as a poll out Tuesday found more than seven out of 10 New Yorkers want the developers of the proposed community center, which contains a prayer room and would be located about two blocks north of Ground Zero, to move the project.

Rauf suggested the challenges to the planned mosque and community center could leave many Muslims questioning their place.

But he avoided questions over whether an alternative site is possible. Instead, he repeatedly stressed the need to embrace the religious and political freedoms in the United States. "I am happy to be American," Rauf told about 200 people at the Dubai School of Government think tank.

He said he became closer to Islam after moving to America, where he had the choice to either follow the faith or drift away. "Like many of our fellow Muslims, we found our faith in America," he said.

During his Middle East trip, Rauf has generally sidestepped questions over the backlash to the proposed center's location. But in an interview published Monday in the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National, he linked the protests to the U.S. elections in November. Many conservatives have joined the opposition to the center, which is being spearheaded by a newly formed nonprofit organization that includes real estate developers and has named Rauf as one of the directors.

"It is important to shift the discussion from a discussion of identity politics," he said.

A Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday showed 71 percent of New Yorkers want the developers of the project to voluntarily move the project. Quinnipiac questioned 1,497 registered voters from Aug. 23 to Aug. 29. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.