The cleric behind plans to build an Islamic cultural centre near Ground Zero in New York has warned that retreating on the project would only strengthen the hand of Muslim extremists.But Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf did not rule out that developers would move the community centre and mosque, telling ABC: 'The decisions that I will make - that we will make - will be predicated on what is best for everybody.'
The Islamic centre, to be built on the site of a derelict clothing store, was proposed by Abdul Rauf as a way of giving Islam a new face in the United States and supporters see it as a place for reconciliation between faiths.
However opponents - led by rightwing radio DJs and politicians campaigning on patriotic tickets ahead of 2 November congressional midterm elections - accuse the imam of seeking to honour the Islamist terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
Thousands marched through New York on Saturday's ninth anniversary of the attacks, facing off in angry debate under a heavy police presence as they protested both for and against the project.
The row was enflamed in the run-up to 11 September ceremonies in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania by threats from an evangelical pastor to burn hundreds of Korans unless the mosque was moved.
Terry Jones, the pastor of a tiny Florida church, later relented and promised not to proceed with the Koran-burning, but not before his incendiary threats had triggered violent demonstrations across the Muslim world.
Two people were shot and killed on Sunday by the Afghan army in the eastern district of Baraki Barak as a crowd of up to 300 protesters chanted anti-US slogans and tried to storm the governor's office.
Mr Jones flew to New York at the weekend to meet with Abdul Rauf, but the imam has so far snubbed him and vowed not to barter.
'How can you equate the burning of any person's scripture with an attempt to build inter-faith dialogue?' Abdul Rauf told ABC.
The imam said he would never have conceived the whole mosque project if he had anticipated the trouble it was going to cause.
'I'm a man of peace. I mean the whole objective of peace work is not to do something that would provoke controversy.'
Now, he said, the 'discourse has been, to a certain extent, hijacked by the radicals,' making the decision on whether or not to move the centre, 'very difficult and very challenging.
'My major concern with moving it is that the headline in the Muslim world will be 'Islam is under attack in America',' he said. 'This will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment.'
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is an avowed backer of the mosque, while President Barack Obama has been more circumspect, declining to say whether he thinks building it is wise while defending organisers' right to do so.
'If you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on a site,' Mr Obama said at a press conference on Friday.
Polls show a majority of US citizens, and some 70% of New Yorkers, think the Islamic centre should be moved further from Ground Zero.
Abdul Rauf said it was important to stress that Muslims are 'part of the fabric of America' and that contrary to the claims of Islamic extremists, they are free to observe their religion and 'thrive in this country.'
'The recent controversy, I think, has heightened the concern among Muslims, but we feel that there is a spike of Islamophobia which is reaching and perhaps even possibly exceeding what happened right after 9/11.'
SIC: RTÉ/IE