The developer of an Islamic cultural center that opened on Wednesday evening two blocks from the site of the terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center in New York said the biggest error on the project was not involving the families of the Sept. 11, 2001, victims from the start.
People crowded into the center, where a small orchestra played traditional Middle Eastern instruments and a photo exhibit of New York children of different ethnicities lined the walls. The enthusiasm at the opening belied its troubled beginnings.
“We made incredible mistakes,” Sharif El-Gamal said in an earlier interview at his Manhattan office.
The building at 51 Park Place, includes a Muslim prayer space that has been open for two years.
El-Gamal said the overall center is modeled after the Jewish Community Center (JCC) on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
“I wanted my daughter to learn how to swim, so I took her to the JCC and when I walked in, I said: ‘Wow. This is great,’” the Brooklyn-born Muslim said.
The project has drawn criticism from opponents. The center is open to all faiths and will include a Sept. 11 memorial, El-Gamal said. He called opposition to the center — which prompted one of the most virulent national discussions about Islam, freedom of speech and religion since Sept. 11, 2001 — part of a “campaign against Muslims.”
When the center was first envisioned several years ago, activist Daisy Khan and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, played a major, vocal role, but they soon left the project. El-Gamal, 38, confirmed on Wednesday that they parted ways because “we had a different vision.”
The couple said they had discussed plans for the center with relatives of Sept. 11 victims, first responders and others, including the possibility that it could become a multi-faith center focusing on religious conflict, but El-Gamal wishes victims’ families had been involved earlier.
“The biggest mistake we made was not to include 9/11 families,” El-Gamal said, adding that the center’s advisory board now includes at least one 9/11 family member.
At first, “we didn’t understand that we had a responsibility to discuss our private project with family members that lost loved ones,” he said, and they did not “really connect” with community leaders.
However, today “we’re very committed to having them involved in our project ... We’re really listening,” he said.
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