Obama defends Ground Zero mosque plan
Updated on 14 August 2010
US President Barack Obama defends the right of Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero, in New York, despite local opposition and a vocal campaign by families of 9/11 victims to block the project.
The US president told a gathering of Muslims in Washington that American values promised the freedom of religion and the ability to practice wherever people wanted.
He went on to say that al-Qaida was a distortion of Islam, representing terrorists and not religious leaders.
The president acknowledged the sensitivity of the issue. "We must all recognise and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan," he said.
"The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable.
"So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders."
Earlier this month a New York city agency cleared the way for construction of a Muslim community centre, which will include a prayer room, two blocks from where the World Trade Center stood.
Many families of those killed in the 9/11 attacks have mounted a campaign to block the community centre, calling it provocative.
Debra Burlingame, a spokeswoman for some of the victims' families, said: "Barack Obama has abandoned America at theplace where america's heart was broken nine years ago and where her true velues were on display for all to see."
A recent poll suggests 53 per cent of New Yorkers oppose it. And a nationwide survey shows that seven out of 10 americans oppose the building of of mosque.
Several conservative leaders in the United States, including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, have also denounced the plans.
But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has firmly supported the project, as have many religious organisations in the city. He called President Obama's speech "a clarion defence of the freedom of religion".
More than 2,700 people were killed when al-Qaida hijackers crashed two passenger plans into the twin towers.
