NEW YORK — Some Muslims who were initially indifferent about a proposed Islamic center near the World Trade Center site are now rallying around the plan, partly in response to a sense that their faith is under assault.
A summit of U.S. Muslim organizations is planned for today and Sunday in New York City to address both the project and a rise in anti-Muslim sentiments and rhetoric that has accompanied the debate over the project.
It has yet to be seen whether the group will emerge with a firm stand on the proposed community center, dubbed Park51. The primary purpose of the two-day meeting is to talk about ways to combat religious bigotry.
But Shaik Ubaid of the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York, one of the groups organizing the gathering, said he has a growing sense that the project is being embraced by American Muslims and Muslim groups after some initial trepidation.
“Once it became a rallying cry for extremists, we had no choice but to stand with Feisal Rauf,” he said, referring to the New York City imam who has been leading the drive for the center.
Groups scheduled to participate in the summit include the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Alliance of North America and the Council on American Islamic Relations.
The weekend summit comes as some supporters of the center have encouraged its organizers to include prayer space for Jews, Christians and other religious groups as a way of countering critics who say it will be a monument to Islamic supremacy.
“They had always talked about giving the center an interfaith concept,” said Julie Menin, chairwoman of the Manhattan community board that endorsed the project months ago. The Associated Press
