New York: The cleric who hopes to build an Islamic centre near the World Trade Center site said on Friday that he will tour the country in an effort "to inspire interfaith understanding" for a project that has ignited explosive faceoffs between supporters and opponents.
"The major purpose is to make people aware of what America means as a country that protects the right to freedom of religion," Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf said.
American Muslims like himself, he said, "can play an important role as interlocutors between the United States and the Muslim world."
Rauf's first appearance is scheduled for Detroit on January 15. 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.
Rauf said he expects the tour will end sometime in April. He's still receiving and considering invitations.
In a telephone interview — "on a cell phone while shopping", he said — he told the AP that he wants to make clear both to New Yorkers and people across the country the purpose of a project "about which I've been dreaming for 20 years".
He said the Islamic centre would be modelled on Manhattan's 92nd Street Y — "a community space where people of all faiths can come to participate in everything from athletics to cooking classes, adult education programmes, and panel discussions on issues of importance".
There also would be theatre productions and film screenings, he said.
Political firestorm
Last summer, Rauf's idea of constructing the high-rise Islamic community centre and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero provoked a political firestorm that led to virulent demonstrations.
Opponents call it offensive to families of September 11 victims and are demanding that the project be moved to another location. They say building a mosque near the site of the terrorist attack perpetrated by Islamists is an affront to them.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed the centre at the original proposed location.
