Imam fears moving NYC mosque could inflame tension

NEW YORK (AP):

The imam behind a proposed Islamic community centre and mosque near ground zero cautioned Wednesday that moving the facility could cause a violent backlash from Muslim extremists and endanger national security.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told CNN that the discourse surrounding the centre has become so politicised that moving it could strengthen the ability of extremists abroad to recruit and wage attacks against Americans, including troops fighting in the Middle East.

"The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack," he said, but he added that he was open to the idea of moving the planned location of the centre, currently two blocks north of the World Trade Center site.

"But if you don't do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world," he later said, predicting that the reaction could be more furious than the eruption of violence following the 2005 publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Opponents say the centre, which would include a September 11 memorial and a Muslim prayer space, should be moved farther away from where Islamic extremists destroyed the World Trade Center and killed nearly 2,800 people. Supporters say religious freedom should be protected.

Rauf, 61, has largely been absent since the debate over the centre erupted earlier this year. He has been travelling abroad, including taking a State Department-funded 15-day trip to the Middle East to promote religious tolerance.

In the interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien, his first since returning to the US on Sunday, Rauf said that, in retrospect, he might have chosen a different location for what he described as a multifaith community centre.

"If I knew this would happen, if it would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn't have done it," he said.