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New York Imam: No Plans to Shelve Proposed Islamic Center

13 September 2010 20:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A New York City imam says he deeply regrets the upheaval sparked by a proposed Islamic center blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood, and would not have embarked on the project had he known the hostility it would engender, APA reports quoting â€œThe Voice of Americaâ€.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf says he never imagined his proposal to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York would lead to protests and divisive debate across the United States and the world. But what if he had known?

"I would never have done it [proposed the project]," Rauf said. "I am a man of peace. The whole objective of peace work is not to do something that will provoke controversy."

Imam Rauf spoke on ABC’s This Week program. But despite his regrets, he says - now that the proposal has been made - the Islamic center must not be scrapped or moved elsewhere in the city, as some have suggested.