Memorial To Victims Of 9/11 Pledged As Part Of ground Zero Mega-Mosque

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On the eve of expected city approval of a mosque and Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero, backers of the project are pledging to include a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as part of an effort to allay opponents' complaints that the mosque's location is insensitive.



"We've heard and felt their pain, and we're extending ourselves," said Daisy Khan, a partner in the building and the wife of the cleric leading the effort. "We want to repair the breach and be at the front and center to start the healing."



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Paul Quitoriano for The Wall Street Journal



Daisy Khan: 'We've...felt their pain.'

.Metropolis: Q&A With Daisy Khan

"No one should be asked to leave their neighborhood. This is our neighborhood and we've been part of it for 27 years. Our opponents are not from this neighborhood."



Read the full interview with Daisy Khan, one of the organizers of the planned Islamic center near Ground Zero.

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..Offering the first glimpse into how the developers of the $100 million project hope to blunt the persistent criticism, Ms. Khan said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the board that runs the center will include members of other religions "to protect the interests of the center and to ensure the center has the highest standards of transparency." She also said the developers will explore including an interfaith chapel as part of the final plans.



"The universal values of all religions will be the underpinning of our center," said Ms. Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. "It will all happen in an atmosphere of interfaith collaboration."



Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said Ms. Khan's statements on transparency, inclusiveness and healing don't address the central point of his group's opposition: that the location of the center is insensitive to the families of the Sept. 11 victims. "If you want to heal us, don't do it in our cemetery," he said. "We are joining in with families who are not saying don't do it at all, but saying don't do it here."



Opposition to the project, now called Park51, began in earnest with some families of the victims of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center expressing outrage over what they understood to be a mosque at Ground Zero. The momentum grew, despite repeated votes from the local community board in support of the center, and has become a national political issue. Ms. Khan rejected accusations from some opponents that her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has refused to condemn Hamas as a terrorist group.



"Hamas commits atrocious acts of terror," she said. "Imam has outright condemned all forms of terrorism."



With the city Landmarks and Preservation Commission set Tuesday to greenlight the project at Park Place and Broadway, Ms. Khan said that none of the money has been raised yet for the center. She wouldn't rule out accepting foreign funding, but said the group would be careful about who it took money from.



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The former Burlington Coat Factory building that will make way for the Cordoba House which some are calling the "Ground Zero Mosque."

.She said that was part of the reason for the plan to include members of other faiths on the board, as well as a pledge to work closely with the Charities Bureau of the state attorney general's office and abide by "highest standards set forth by the Treasury Department," which investigates links between charities and terror groups.



Ms. Khan said she and her husband are not deaf to the controversy but remain steadfast in their belief that the center has the right to exist in Lower Manhattan and will serve as the nucleus for improved relations between Muslim New Yorkers and their neighbors. "We have learned from other religions that this is the path to the Americanization of a religion," Ms. Khan said. "Islam is an American religion now—it has to create institutions that intersect with its own community and the broader community that surrounds it."



Park51 will include a prayer space designed for about 2,000 worshipers, but Ms. Khan said the plans also call for a gym, a pool and a 500-seat theater and gallery space for rotating exhibitions. There will be a restaurant and a small culinary school in addition to retail space. A catering hall for weddings and other social events is also planned.



Ms. Khan said classrooms and lecture halls will host discussions aimed at keeping Muslims away from extremism. "There must be a robust debate on the critical issues of radicalization, extremism and terrorism," she said. She envisions the leadership of the center to be young, energetic Muslims "who are very comfortable in their American identity and committed to their Muslim identity."



Write to Tamer El-Ghobashy at tamer.el-ghobashy@wsj.com