Muslim, Jewish, Christian and civic groups formed a coalition today to back a controversial plan for a Muslim cultural centre near the site of the World Trade Center attacks.
The cultural centre and mosque face fierce opposition from conservative politicians and people who consider its location insensitive to families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11th attacks by al Qaeda militants in 2001.
But the newly formed New York Neighbors for American Values made up of more than 40 religious and civic groups said the debate was creating fear and division and that it would fight for US constitutional freedoms to be upheld.
"We were not attacked by the Muslim world," said Donna O'Connor, spokeswoman for September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, whose pregnant daughter was killed in the World Trade Center attacks. "We 100 per cent fully support the Islamic cultural centre in New York City."
The debate turned national ahead of November elections - as Republicans seek to wrest control of Congress from Democrats - and in New York the city's many Muslim taxi drivers linked the controversy to an attack on a colleague.
Driver Ahmed Sharif, a 43-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant, said he was slashed across the neck, face and shoulders yesterday by a passenger who asked if he was Muslim and observed Ramadan. Police said the attack was being investigated as a hate crime and that a 21-year-old man had been arrested and faces several charges including attempted murder and assault.
Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said the controversy over the Muslim cultural centre and mosque had made Muslim New Yorkers vulnerable. The alliance estimates nearly half of the city's taxi drivers are Muslim.
"The environment that all the fear-mongering and the ignorance has created, we believe, is directly responsible for this kind of violence," Mr Desai said.
US President Barack Obama and New York city mayor Michael Bloomberg have said they support the right of Muslims to build the centre near Ground Zero, while many Republicans, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, oppose it.
Polls have found at least 60 per cent of Americans are against building the centre near the World Trade Center site.
"We reject the refrain of 'freedom of religion but not in my backyard,'" Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told a news conference to announce New York Neighbors for American Values.
The plan is to build a 13-storey building to house an auditorium, swimming pool, meeting rooms and prayer space. The structure is architecturally plain and does not include a minaret, dome or other motifs often associated with mosques.
The building at the site now is already being used as a prayer space. New York is home to some 800,000 Muslims, about 10 per cent of the city's population, and there are about 100 mosques throughout the city's five boroughs.
Some opponents of the project have taken legal action, seeking to void a ruling that would allow construction to proceed, while some construction workers have launched a Hard Hat Pledge, vowing not to work on it.
Reuters