ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. David Paterson offered state help Tuesday if the developers of a mosque near the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks agree to move the project farther away.
Paterson, a Democrat, said he doesn’t oppose the project as planned but indicated that he understands opponents’ objections. He said he was willing to intervene to seek other suitable state property if the developers agreed. The developers declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the imam behind the plans for the mosque is being sent by the State Department on a religious outreach trip to the Middle East, officials said Tuesday, in a move that drew criticism from conservative lawmakers.
The department is sponsoring Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s visit to Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, where he will discuss Muslim life in America and promote religious tolerance, spokesman P.J. Crowley said. He said the imam had been on two similar trips and that plans for the upcoming tour predated the mosque controversy.
GOP Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Peter King of New York called government sponsorship of Rauf’s trip “unacceptable.” They said he had suggested in at least one interview that the U.S. was to blame for the 2001 attacks, and they said taxpayer money should not be used to fund the tour.
