Right: an aerial view showing the proposed Muslim centre in relation to the World Trade Centre site.
Background information
Much of the information given below can be found in more extended form at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park51 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park51http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center
The Park51 (originally named Cordoba House) project is a 13-story Islamic community and prayer centre development. Its proposed location is two blocks from the World Trade Centre site in Lower Manhattan.
It is sometimes simplistically referred to as a mosque because it will contain a space for prayer. If it is built as proposed, it will replace an existing 1850s Italianate-style building that was being used as a Burlington Coat Factory before it was damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The proposed facility's design includes a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts centre, fitness centre, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, art studio, food court, September 11 memorial, and a prayer space that could accommodate 1,000-2,000 people.
Public response
Initially there was little negative response to the project. The plans were reviewed by the local community board in May 2010, at which time they attracted some national media attention. Protests were first sparked through a campaign by conservative bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, leaders of the group Stop Islamisation of America, who called the project the 'Ground Zero mosque'.
Speaking in his capacity as a 'spokesperson for the conservative Tea Party political movement', Mark Williams called the centre 'a monument to the terror attacks'.
Some relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks said they found the proposal offensive because the radical Muslim terrorists who committed the attacks did so in the name of Islam.
Polls have showed that the majority of Americans, New York State residents, and New York City residents oppose building the centre near the site of the World Trade Centre; however, a majority of those living in Manhattan support building the centre.
A number of American politicians spoke out against the Park51 project:
Among them have been Republicans Senator John McCain; Sarah Palin; Mitt Romney (former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate); Senator Johnny Isakson; Senator Olympia Snowe; Idaho Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo; Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson; Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and North Carolina congressional candidate Ilario Pantano; and former House Speaker Republican, Newt Gingrich.
Some Democrat politicians have also suggested that a mosque would be better built somewhere else. These have included Senate Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid; former Democratic Presidential Candidate, Howard Dean; and Democratic Representative, Mike McMahon, of New York's 13 District.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a U.S. Jewish civil rights group, while it has spoken out against what it has claimed is anti-Muslim bigotry, has also recommended that the Muslim centre would be better built somewhere else.
The Muslim centre has however attracted the support of numerous others. On August 13, 2010, in a speech at the annual White House Iftar dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, President Barack Obama acknowledged the right of Muslims to build the Islamic centre.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly endorsed the project, saying that Ground Zero was a "very appropriate place" for a mosque, because it "tells the world" that the United States has freedom of religion for everyone.
Community Board 1 Financial Committee Chairman Edward "Ro" Sheffe claimed 'it will be a wonderful asset to the community.' New York City Councilwoman Margaret Chin has also said, 'The center is something the community needs.'
Additional New York politicians supported the proposal. They included Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer; U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler; NY State Senator Daniel Squadron; NYC Comptroller John Liu; NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
The World Trade Centre, September 11 and 'Ground Zero'
The World Trade Centre (WTC) was a complex of seven skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan in New York City that were destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with six new skyscrapers and a memorial to the casualties of the attacks.
The September 11 attacks (often referred to as September 11th or 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others.
The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.
The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights.
Nearly 3,000 victims and the 19 hijackers died in the attacks.
The rebuilding process has started on the World Trade Centre site. In 2006, a new office tower was completed on the site of 7 World Trade Centre. The new 1 World Trade Centre is currently under construction at the site and upon completion in 2013 it will become one of the tallest buildings in North America. Three more towers were originally expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on the site. After the late-2000s recession, the site's owners have said that construction of new towers could be delayed until 2036.
One of the first memorials on the site was the Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights at the footprints of the World Trade Centre towers which projected two vertical columns of light into the sky.
In New York, the World Trade Centre Site Memorial Competition was held to design an appropriate memorial on the site. The winning design, Reflecting Absence, was selected in August 2006, and consists of a pair of reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a list of the victims' names in an underground memorial space. Plans for a museum on the site have been put on hold, following the abandonment of the International Freedom Centre in reaction to complaints from the families of many victims.
'Ground zero' is most commonly defined as 'the surface directly above or below the point at which a nuclear explosion takes place'. After the September 11 terrorist attacks many Americans now refer to the site of the former World Trade Centre as 'Ground Zero'.