Imam of Proposed Park 51 Mosque to Go on US Speaking Tour

IslamToday / Agencies
Sat, 12/25/2010

The imam behind the controversial Park 51 Islamic community center and mosque in New York will begin a nationwide speaking tour next month to promote the project and encourage interfaith dialogue, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has been at the center of a national firestorm over his proposal to build a high-rise community center and mosque two blocks north of where the World Trade Center's twin towers stood before the 2001 airliner attacks.

Rauf's first appearance is scheduled for Detroit on 15 January. The city has North America's largest Muslim population.

The imam said he'll continue on to Chicago, Washington, San Antonio and college campuses including Harvard, Georgetown, Yale and the University of North Carolina. He did not release specific dates for his speeches.

"His speaking tour commences on January 15 in Detroit, and he will continue speaking throughout the year in about 12 different markets," Leyla Turkkan, the imam's spokeswoman, told CNN.

"This is not a fundraising tour. He is continuing his work in multifaith dialogue, and the majority of the events will be closed to the public," she said.

Turkkan added that the events would be by invitation only, as part of security precautions. Because of death threats he has received, none of his addresses would be open to the general public, but Rauf would convey his messages through the media.

Earlier this month, Rauf announced a multifaith movement to promote discussion among Muslims, Jews, Christians and people of all faiths. His Cordoba Movement seeks to "retake the discourse among religions and cultures from the hands of the extremists around the world who benefit from hatred and violence," he said.

Rauf has become embroiled in controversy for his efforts on behalf of Park 51, a proposed 13-story Islamic community center.

The Islamic center proposal was initiated by Sharif El-Gamal, the American-born developer and investor who heads the real estate firm Soho Properties. He and Rauf collaborated on the concept of the center. Rauf calls the project Cordoba House, while El-Gamal often refers to it as Park 51. Both names refer to the same project.

Its proximity to where the two commercial jets hijacked by Muslim extremists crashed into the twin towers prompted strong protests -- which turned the issue into a global debate over Islam's place in the United States.

The proposed center is part of a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative. The complex would feature a mosque, a performing arts center, a gym, a swimming pool and other public spaces.

Some six in 10 Catholics and Mormons think another location should be found, according to a recent Gallup survey, while less than a third of Muslims, other non-Christians and non-religious Americans feel the same way. The survey found Protestants and other Christians fell in the middle.

Despite opposition to the Islamic center, the imam is viewed as a moderate Muslim sponsored by the U.S. State Department to travel on behalf of the United States, tempering extreme positions in the interest of world peace.

Rauf wants his movement to create trust between faiths and counter remarks by congressmen and talk-show hosts who tie Muslim terrorism to the broader Islamic religion.

Meanwhile, some of the project's most outspoken opponents have welcomed the imam's plan for a speaking tour.

"I think this will help to revive the opposition, not only from Americans in general but from Muslims in this country, who don't want this thing built," Ryan Mauro, a conservative blogger and the producer of a documentary criticising the planned community center, said.