New Yorkers see right to mosque, but want it moved

NEW YORK voters contradicted themselves over a planned Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site, with majorities saying both that Muslims have the right to build one but that they should be forced to move it, a poll issued on Tuesday finds. Fifty-four per cent of those polled believe Muslims have the right to build the center and mosque near "Ground Zero" because of American freedom of religion, but a similar 53 per cent said that right should be denied because of the sensitivities of relatives of those killed on September 11, 2001.

The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,497 New York state registered voters from August 23 to 29, at the height of the controversy that Republicans who oppose the mosque have seized on for a political edge over Democrats ahead of November 2 congressional elections. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Forty-five per cent had a favourable opinion of Islam compared to 31 per cent with an unfavourable opinion, and 54 per cent said mainstream Islam was a peaceful religion compared to 24 per cent who said it encourages violence. "The heated, sometimes angry, debate over the proposal to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero has New York state voters twisted in knots, with some of them taking contradictory positions depending on how the question is asked," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

Fifty-four per cent said Muslims have the right to build, with 40 per cent disagreeing, while 53 per cent thought they should be denied this right, with 39 per cent opposed. But a larger majority, 71 per cent, said the organisation behind the mosque should voluntarily move elsewhere because of opposition from September 11 survivors, with 21 per cent opposed.

And an identical 71 per cent told the poll that the state attorney general should investigate the financing of the mosque, with 22 per cent disagreeing. The 13-story, US$100 million cultural centre, which will include a prayer room, was proposed by organization called the Cordoba Initiative.Reuters