Muslim summit to address hostility over project

Muslim leaders from around the nation plan to hold a summit in New York City Sunday to discuss the controversy around a planned Islamic center in lower Manhattan, as well as what organizers say is an atmosphere of growing hostility against Muslims.

The summit is expected to include the leadership of more than three dozen Islamic groups from around the country.

"We are focusing on a united way to combat this 'Islamophobia' and religious bigotry, which is going on nationwide," said Zaheer Uddin, executive director of Majlis Ash-Shura of Metropolitan New York. The umbrella group for mosques and Islamic organizations in New York City is hosting the meeting.

Uddin said they will craft a unified statement on Park51, a proposed Islamic center two blocks from the World Trade Center site. Public debate over the project has turned emotional, with opponents and supporters of the project holding large demonstrations near the site last week.

Critics have painted the center as an affront to the victims of 9/11 because the hijackers were Muslim, while supporters have stressed freedom of religion and the nonreligious aspects of the project. The proposed center is modeled after community and cultural centers such as the 92nd Street Y and YMCAs.

Organizers plan to hold a news conference in front of the site on Park Place Monday along with the management of the center.

"We will declare that Islam and Muslims are not strangers to America, and America is not a stranger to Islam and Muslims," Uddin said. "We have a long history together in this land."

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the recent slashing of a Muslim taxi driver in New York City and arson at an Islamic center under construction in Tennessee were examples of intensifying hostility.

"This is worrisome to many of us and to our children," said Awad, whose organization advocates on behalf of Muslim Americans. "We celebrate diversity. Diversity is not a weakness in America, it is a strength."