NYers: Muslims have right to build mosque there, but shouldn't

New Yorkers believe Muslims have the right to build a community center near Ground Zero but still think they should take it someplace else, according to the latest Quinnipiac Poll.

The results echoed the results of earlier local polls in which most respondents agreed Muslims have a right to build a community center and mosque but think it is insensitive to do so near the site of the terror attacks at the World Trade Center.

By a wide margin of 80 percent to 15 percent, New York State likely voters supported the right to build the center - listed as a mosque by pollsters. However, voters also overwhelmingly believed, 67 percent to 21 percent, that mosque supporters should agree voluntarily to build it somewhere else, the poll found.

"Most voters think it isn't 'appropriate' to put a mosque close to Ground Zero," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "There's a party split: Republicans overwhelmingly say no; Democrats say yes."

"But almost all New Yorkers agree that America's belief in freedom of religion gives Muslims the right to build the mosque," Carroll said in a statement.

In a statement, center organizer Imam Feisal Rauf responded: "I understand that many New Yorkers are sympathetic to the genuine feelings of 9/11 families. Many of those families support our plans for a community center."

"I am convinced that proceeding with our center is the right thing to do, and that support will grow as people better understand the true story," Rauf said.

The Quinnipiac poll of 751 likely New York State voters was conducted from Sept. 16 to 20. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.