August 25, 2010 7:02 PM

Poll: Most Say "Ground Zero Mosque" Is Inappropriate

By
Alex Sundby
Topics
Polling

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

A majority of Americans don't think it is appropriate to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, according to a new CBS News poll.

Nearly three of four Americans -- 71 percent -- say building a mosque so close to the site is not appropriate while just 22 percent say it is appropriate.

How one views Islam informs how they feel about the proposed construction of the mosque near Ground Zero. Those who have a favorable opinion of Islam are more inclined to think the mosque is appropriate with 50 percent calling it appropriate and 42 percent saying it isn't. Those who view Islam unfavorably decidedly think it's inappropriate 88 percent going against it to 9 percent.

Nevertheless, most Americans also agree that the developers do have a right to build a mosque there. Sixty-seven percent say they do while 29 percent say they do not.

Overall, 24 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of Islam while far more -- 39 percent -- have an unfavorable opinion of the religion. Nearly as many-- 37 percent -- don't have an opinion.

Read the Full Poll

This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,082 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.


  • Alex Sundby

    Alex Sundby is an associate news editor for CBSNews.com

Add a Comment See all 270 Comments
by vkmo September 9, 2010 7:51 PM EDT
I am opposed to the ground zero mosque. It should be built elsewhere.
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by stop-n-think September 9, 2010 9:09 AM EDT
Let me get this straight. A group of people claiming to be nonviolent want to build a house of worship at a place where their "co-worshipers" committed one of the worlds most horrific attacks on mankind. Then this same group of people threaten to perform violent acts worldwide if one man burns a book????? There is no longer a need to burn the Quran, since just talking about the act already proved its point! Just how stupid are you people if you can't see that for yourself???
A Mosque at ground zero would be exactly the same as placing a statue of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, (Commander of the Japanese fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor)on the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.











Okay, let us try this. ALL non-muslims worldwide from this day forward should carry several pounds of pig fat on their person so that the suicide bombers get covered in pig fat before they meet their maker.
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by bpai99 August 27, 2010 5:48 PM EDT
It's amusing to me that when Christians commit atrocities (like Hitler and Stalin, a Catholic and Jesuit, respectively), Christians then claim those monsters were atheists and not Christians at heart. When those of other religions commit atrocities, Christians then say that's typical of everyone of that faith. I wish I had that level of moral flexibility, where hypocrisy is a virtue and people can claim to be Christians while not following Christ's teachings.

"I liked your Christ. Christians, not so much." - M. Gandhi
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by tjk566 September 13, 2010 2:30 PM EDT
Bpai99, it is very strange to me that you mention those who "claim to be Christians while not following Christ's teachings." First, you allege that Hitler and Stalin were Christians, when they clearly did not follow the teachings of Christ (In fact, their actions directly contradicted everything that Christ preached). Then, you criticize those "Christians" who do not act in accordance to Christ's teachings.... A bit of a flip-flopper, are we?
by cherubimii August 26, 2010 9:58 PM EDT
It's strange that God doesn't mind expressing Himself/Herself in all the religions of the world, while people still cling to the notion that their way is the only right way. Whatever you try to say about God, someone will take offense, even if you say everyone's love of God is right for them.
For me the form God takes is not the most important thing. What's most important is the essence. My songs and dances are outlines for Him to come in and fill. I hold out the form. She puts in the sweetness.
I've looked up at the night sky and beheld the stars so intimately close, it was as if my grandmother had made them for me. "How rich, how sumptuous," I thought. In that moment I saw God in His creation. I could as easily have seen Her in the beauty of a rainbow, the grace of a deer bounding through a meadow, the truth of a father's kiss. But for me the sweetest contact with God has no form. I close my eyes, look within, and enter a deep soft silence. The infinity of God's creation embraces me. We are one.

**DANCING THE DREAM by Michael Jackson**
(published 1992)

Click on the link (or copy it and paste it in your address bar)
ENJOY THE VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caZCGlpozns&feature=related
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by M_Miles August 26, 2010 7:17 PM EDT
The Imam that proposed building the mosque in the Ground Zero area may have put forth some comments that are hard to put in words; although you can hear him as he speaks for himself.

The Imam Rauf calls him self a coach and the President one of his players? The coach states he sends his player(s) in as needed; in his own words. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-hqVOLEgec&feature=player_embedded
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by M_Miles August 26, 2010 7:20 PM EDT
I don't know if the President agrees that he is one of the players?
by smlyn August 26, 2010 6:47 PM EDT
Although they have a right to build this mosque near ground zero, I feel that to do so is in extremely poor taste.
The important factor to focus on now is to find out exactly where they're getting the funds to support this endeavor - something they're keeping tight lipped about it. With all this public scrutiny, it's going to have to come out sooner or later. This might be their downfall!
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by curse914 August 26, 2010 7:38 PM EDT
It was funny when Fox did a "fund trace" and it led to a Saudi who is also funding Fox New...you can not make up stuff as good as this.
by smlyn August 26, 2010 9:10 PM EDT
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know neither Rauf nor the developer have openly ruled out the Mideast- specifically Iran and Saudi Arabia - as a possible source to help finance the completion of this mosque. Seeking such funding would be adding "insult to injury" and surely cause a major uproar in this country.
Since the US government views Iran as a sponsor of terrorism and, knowing the majority of terrorists in the skies on 9/11 were Saudi Arabians,would they allow such funding? It's appalling to think so.
I mean just how much are Americans expected to "tolerate"!
Let's just see where the rest of the money is going to come from!
by Cuda-Driver August 26, 2010 6:16 PM EDT
Who is Feisal Abdul Rauf the man behind the proposed community center. What was Rauf best known for before this controversy? Since the 1990s he has been heavily involved in interfaith dialogue with Christian and Jewish leaders, and has founded two nonprofits focused on building bridges between American Muslims, U.S. society, and the Muslim world: The American Society for Muslim Advancement (1997) and the Cordoba Initiative (2003). After 9/11, Rauf did sensitivity training for the FBI and has gone on four U.S.-sponsored speaking tours to the Mideast since 2007 to discuss how Islam meshes with American religious pluralism. He has been praised for his attempts to build bridges between the West and the Muslim world. He condemns terrorism (and the the 9/11 attacks in particular) as un-Islamic and called on the U.S. government to reduce the threat of terrorism by altering its Middle Eastern foreign policy.

What does the Muslim world think of him? His views "place him as pro-American within the Muslim world," His outreach to Christians and Jews, liberal views on female equality, criticism of several Muslim countries as less true to core Islamic teachings than the U.S., and stated support for Israel have made him suspect in some Islamic circles.

What are some of his controversial quotes? "We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non Muslims." (Speech in Australia, 2005) "I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened [on 9/11], but United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened... We have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA." (CBS?60 Minutes, Sept. 30, 2001) "The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets." (Quoted in Sydney Morning Herald, 2004) Now do these quotes make him a radical Islamist? Some of these same things have been said by politicians on both sides, priests and many other Americans, does that make them radical Islamist to? In all of his speeches through out the years, hand picking a few quotes that you may or may not agree with does not make him a terrorist sympathizer.

Some say Rauf supports Hamas. Not true he refused to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization that's all. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be Israel's eternal capital, the notion of even temporarily halting construction in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians envision as their capital of a future state called Palestine, is a non-starter. Israel is taking Palestinian land by force bulldozing existing houses and people in the way and then building their own houses.

Israel has a vast army with weapons, tanks, missals, jet planes, helicopters, nuklear weapons, etc. Going against a country with no army and and very few weapons. Palestinian or mostly Hamas are fighting back in anyway they can. If the U.S. Was invaded by a vastly superior army would we not fight back by army means necessary? If we did would we be terrorists?
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by vkmo August 26, 2010 5:00 PM EDT
Mosque should not be built, because it will honor all the killers:
osama and his gang who conducted the 911 attacks & killed 3000, but also:
faisal shahzad the times square bomber
richard reid the shoe bomber
umar farouk abdulmutallab the underwear bomber
sirhan sirhan, killer of senator robert kennedy in 1968
fort hood killer-major nidal mlik hasan (killed 12, wounded 30 & survived)
USA Today article talks about the huge cost of Hasan's killings: Nine months after an Army psychiatrist was charged with fatally shooting 13 soldiers and wounding 30, the nation's largest Army post can measure the toll of war in the more than 10,000 mental health evaluations, referrals or therapy sessions held every month. Attacks and killings have cost USA big bucks--- lots of billions, lots of lives including a US senator, who could have been the president of USA.
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by Cuda-Driver August 26, 2010 4:31 PM EDT
Do the people complaining about the building this community center actually live in New York? There are two mosques already located near ground zero. Masquid Manhattan is 4 blocks away, in fact it's been there for over 40 years and Masquid al-Farah is about 12 blocks away. ?New York City has more than 100 mosques, and more than 800,000 of its 8.21 million residents are Muslims,? said Philip Banks III, chief of the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau. There is around 2,5000,000 Muslims in America right now.

Before the twin towers were built that area was called Little Syria with a big Muslim population. There are still many Muslims that live in that area. There were several prayer rooms for Muslims in the WTC, and there will be in the new skyscrapers they build there.

I keep hearing the Muslims destroyed the twin towers in the name of Islam. The truth is, as said by Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and many others. There reason for 911 was because of our support for Israel and because of American bases in Saudi Arabia not because of Islam, look it up. Of course there is no excuse for 911! Now these terrorists were not random Muslims, they were radical Islamist that were all part of Al Qaeda. Not only do they kill Americans they kill other Muslims.

All Muslims are not terrorists. We are at war with terrorists not Islam. Many innocent Muslim Americans were killed on 911. There are over 10,000 Muslims in the military fighting and dieing for our country.

Are all Germans Natzis? Are all priests pedophile? The answer is no. Just like all Muslims are not terrorists. Its the radical Muslims, the radical Germans, the radical priests that are bad, small percentage of the general population. Maybe we should not let churches near schools because of the children that were abused. Does that sound right? Not!

I am not a Muslim. I don't blame Muslims for 911, I blame Al Qaeda, the terrorists. You know the ones we are at war with. The ones that are killing Americans and Muslims right now.

It is not a mosque. A mosque by definition is a purely religious structure. This is a large proposed community center, open to the public and set to house, among other things, a basketball court. Yes there will be prayer space inside as well, but you don't call St. Mary's Hospital a church because it happens to have a chapel inside it, do you? Well maybe you do.

Major point it is not at ground zero. They keep saying the mosque at ground zero. It's just a lie told to you by people who want you to be afraid, upset and hurt. People who want manipulate your emotions to inspire contempt for the government. What about the first Amendment right to freedom of religion?

I don't see the big deal in letting them renovate the building and use as a community and prayer center. All this is doing is causing more Muslims around the world to believe Americans hate Islam not terrorist, creating more terrorists and putting our troops more at risk.
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by kem45 November 18, 2010 8:05 AM EST
The big deal is they have lied. first they say it is a Cordoba community center with a Mosque inside then they changed that and said it is a prayer room inside.I found this statement on some other web site?This is a statement from an American Muslim?
(Mosque is the word English people use. Masjid and masajid are the Arabic words. We use the word to describe the fully functional place, and use 'prayer room' to describe one that doesn't have all the functionality.
Like I said above, not all prayers rooms are mosques, like in the Pentagon. But all mosques have prayer rooms, and it's quite likely that this site will have 5 prayers a day as well as special meetings on their Sabbath day, and so it will be classified as a mosque without having a minaret.)

"so it will be classified as a mosque"

The biggest lie of all, Rauf said its location near ground zero is essential to its message of healing 9/11?s wounds and promoting moderate Islam.. can one person JUST ONE PERSON tell me and every one else "where is the HEALING". all they are doing is hurting the families.
by vieirag August 26, 2010 2:48 PM EDT
Islam is not just a religion. It is a political party mixed with pro Arab, radical ideology and false religion. Islam has shown its own nature: It doesn't respect anything or anyone. Let's make every 9/11 "The Burn The Koran Day"
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