Most New Yorkers Want "Ground Zero Mosque" Moved, Poll Shows

Protesters display their thoughts outside of the building that is the proposed site of the Park51 mosque and cultural center, which is blocks from Ground Zero, on Aug. 20, 2010, in New York.

/ Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Most New Yorkers think the Islamic community center and prayer room planned near Ground Zero should be built somewhere else, a new poll shows.

Meanwhile, Muslim groups and advocates for religious tolerance are responding to what they call growing anti-Muslim bigotry in the U.S.

By a 71 percent to 21 percent majority, voters in New York state agree "that because of the opposition of Ground Zero relatives, the Muslim group should voluntarily build the mosque somewhere else," according to a Quinnipiac poll released yesterday. Among voters in New York City, 63 percent say the community center should be moved, while the sentiment is stronger among suburban and upstate voters.

As many as 53 percent of voters in New York state say "that because of the sensitivities of 9/11 relatives, Muslims should not be allowed to build the mosque near Ground Zero."

However, by a 54 percent to 40 percent majority, voters agree "that because of American freedom of religion, Muslims have the right to build the mosque near Ground Zero." Additionally, 45 percent of voters said they have a "generally favorable" opinion of Islam. Thirty-one percent said they do not, while 24 percent said they were undecided.

Two national security experts joined religious leaders today to condemn protests against the community center, which has been come to known as the "Ground Zero mosque."

The community center "would be a powerful symbol of U.S. tolerance and freedom that will stand in direct contradiction to al Qaeda's narrative that Americans hate Muslims," Matthew Alexander, a former military interrogator in Iraq and author of "How to Break a Terrorist," told reporters in a conference call today.

Lisa Sharon Harper, executive director of New York Faith & Justice, said the political leaders who have spoken out against the plans for the community center are using the incident to score political points.

"They are dishonoring the men and women, including the 59 Muslim Americans, who died on 9/11 at the hands of extremists," she said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today launched a series of television ads with the same message: "9/11 happened to us all." In one ad, a New York firefighter who was a first responder after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks talks about losing a loved one before announcing that he is a Muslim.

A separate grassroots Muslim group this week launched an initiative called "My Faith My Voice," featuring an advertisement with Muslim-Americans saying they don't want to impose their faith on anyone.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of the Muslim leaders organizing the building of the community center, said this week that the controversy, which has turned national, is politically motivated. Rauf returns to the United States today after wrapping up a Persian Gulf trip intended to promote religious tolerance.

[DominiqueRoc]

This is the first time I have seen a report of the American Muslims (59) who were victims of 9/11! I think that everyone should recognize that there are many many Muslim Americans living in New York City who live peacefully and productively in our society, and who were not only traumatized as everyone else by the terrorist attack, but also who have become the target of ignorant bullying, persecution, threat and violence, along with many Indian Americans as well. It is too easy to discriminate against people of different color and culture.
I am a fifth generation American of European descent, but I have lived amongst the different cultures in New York, and have lived as a minority in numerous cities coast to coast. Prejudiced and false identification with the body is a base animalistic tendency, difficult to overcome, unless one comes to the higher platform of spiritual equality. If man is created in God's image, then we are all children of the Supreme Lord. This country was founded on the basic principles of human equality and liberty, and we are all temporary tenants upon this earth! Jesus' teachings of, 'Love God...and love your neighbor as you love yourself,' would be the best rule of thumb for all citizens.
I do not know all the particulars of the proposed Mosque, who is organizing it, where the funds are coming from. There certainly may be legitimate concerns about whether the center is funded by terrorist groups, but I think that there is too much demonization of all muslims in this country. It was fanatical terrorists that killed all those people, not your average muslim believer.

[abigblank]

good to know. We should take science out of schools.

[sickandtired732]

Posted by by nic1234567-2009 September 2, 2010 11:05 AM EDT

Muslim extremists today however do tend to use the term indiscriminately in reference to all non-Muslims.?


And what do you think the definition of Non-muslim is you silly goose

Google ? define: non-muslim - Kafir (Arabic: ???? k?fir; plural ????? kuff?r) is a term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever", or sometimes "infidel". The term refers to a person who rejects God or who hides, denies, or "covers" the truth.

lol

[abigblank]

I'm so glad that this has come up, because I think it brings to light another important and tactless issue. I really think that it is insensitive to have Christian churches so close to where Timothy McVeigh killed those 168 people in the Oklahoma bombing. It is a well known fact that Timothy McVeigh was Christian and this is no doubt an affront to the families of those victims that there are Christian places of worship so close to the site. It is unAmerican.

[M_Mcf_M]

I guess it depends on how you define what a 'Christian' is. Is a Christian any person who believes in 'a god' or in one who believes in a trintarian God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Is it someone who is a practicing member of a church, or someone who just says they are Christian? Is a Christian someone who has never studied or read the Jesus' words to feed, clothe and visit those in need, and to love your neighbor as yourself, and lived those values, or is it someone who has no familiarity with Christ's words?

In a recorded interview with Time magazine[80] McVeigh professed his belief in "a god", although he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "I never really picked it up, however I do maintain core beliefs." Throughout his childhood, he and his father were Roman Catholic and regularly attended daily Mass at Good Shepherd Church in Pendleton, New York. The Guardian reported that McVeigh wrote a letter to them claiming to be an agnostic and that he did not believe in a hell.[81][82] McVeigh once said that he believed the universe was guided by natural law, energized by some universal higher power that showed each person right from wrong if they paid attention to what was going on inside them. He had also said, "Science is my religion."[83]

[FredC1212]

Most Americans want to see this proposed Islamic center moved.
Why?
Because if one is not naive about Islam, or blinded by hatred for America, there is no way it won't be seen as a de facto shrine to the 10 hijackers, some of whose ashes likely fell on that spot.
That may be why the developers don't want to move this project away from the area where the dust clouds from the collapse of the towers permeated.
Any any number of devout muslims will be inspired to go there and pray for, and to, their fellow devout muslims; which according to fundamentalist doctrine, are now in heaven. Call them any names one may wish, the hijackers were devout muslims. And since they died in jihad against infidels, their muslim victims also become martyrs, happily sharing heaven with the attackers.

This project is, unwitting or not, a mockery of those who don't understand the fundamentals, and the fundamentalists, of Islam.

And please, it's not about, "religious freedom." Fundamentalist mormons are not legally allowed the "religious freedom" to engage in polygamy. Neither are American muslims. Christian scientists are not legally entitled to keep their children from receiving medical care for potentially fatal illnesses that are treatable; and so forth.

As Justice Jackson so eloquently put it, "The Constitution is not a suicide pact." New York is under no obligation to allow a new, multimillion dollar defacto shrine to the perpetrators of 9/11 on land likely covered by their ashes.

[jakaica]

Let me go a step further. The fact that the planners of this controversial mosque in NYC are not willing to budge from the location, raises in my mind a red flag. I am sure Osama Bin Laden will be mightily pleased when the project is completed. I am not so much concerned about it becoming a shrine to the memory of the hijackers of 9/11; I am rather afraid that it may become a Trojan horse where future terrorists may hide and plan another attack on a completed Memorial and new World Trade Center. They may even just tunnel underground through those two blocks that separate the two locations. Is this my wild imagination, or already a terrorist blueprint? Only time will tell.

[tsigili]

Well of course, they do. Yet, since when did government listen to, the people??????? Not for decades.

[byrdh5n1]

Another headline: Most Americans Want New Yorkers Moved.......

[abbe91]

"by consh8theusa September 1, 2010 3:58 PM EDT
It's really funny that there was NO criticism of the community center until Gingrich, Palin and Fox created one. How do you sheep like being lead by them?"

And Giuliani. Not that it really matters.
In December last year, even conservative media were really positive about the project. What changed in the mean time except that we are getting closer to mid-term elections ?

This was on Fox in December ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7WbTv_gsx4

[Britlogic]

A better use of the site would be to found a center dedicated to help those who wish to leave any religion who's dogma decrees or inspires murder of those of other beliefs.

[P0ST1ING_AWAY]

by slatep September 1, 2010 7:47 PM EDT
If objecting to the Mosque in New York being built so close to Ground Zero makes us bigots - SO BE IT.
What do the Muslims call being commanded by Allah to kill all "infidels"?
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I am personally more concerned about MoronGelical christians (America's
version of the Taliban) and their numerous misdeeds.