The two leaders of the construction project, meanwhile, defended their plans on Sunday, though one suggested that organizers might eventually be willing to discuss an alternative site. The other, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, said during a Middle East trip that the attention generated by the project is actually positive and that he hopes it will bring greater understanding.
The rallies took place around the corner from the cordoned-off old building that is to become a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque. There were no reports of physical clashes but there were some nose-to-nose confrontations, including a man and a woman screaming at each other across a barricade under a steady rain.
Opponents of the $100 million project two blocks from the World Trade Center site appeared to outnumber supporters. Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" blared over loudspeakers as mosque opponents chanted, "No mosque, no way!"
Steve Ayling, a 40-year-old Brooklyn plumber, said the people behind the mosque project are "the same people who took down the twin towers."
Opponents demand that the mosque be moved farther from the site where more than 2,700 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. "They should put it in the Middle East," Ayling said.
A mannequin wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress, was mounted on one of two mock missiles that were part of an anti-mosque installation. One missile was inscribed with the words: "Obama: With a middle name Hussein. We understand. Bloomberg: What is your excuse?"
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has fiercely defended plans for the proposed mosque, saying that the right "to practice your religion was one of the real reasons America was founded."
The mosque project is being led by Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan, who insist the center will promote moderate Islam. The dispute has sparked a national debate on religious freedom and American values and is becoming an issue on the campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections.
Rauf is in the middle of a Mideast trip funded by the US State Department that is intended to promote religious tolerance. He told a gathering Sunday at the US ambassador's residence in Bahrain that he took heart from the dispute over the mosque, saying "the fact we are getting this kind of attention is a sign of success."
Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, said the angry reaction to the project "is like a metastasized anti-Semitism."
At the pro-mosque rally, staged a block away from opponents' demonstration, several hundred people chanted, "Muslims are welcome here! We say no to racist fear!"
Dr. Ali Karma, a 39-year-old Brooklyn physician, came with his three sons and an 11-year-old nephew waving an American flag. He noted that scores of Muslims were among those who died in the towers, and he called those who oppose the mosque "un-American."
"They teach their children about the freedom of religion in America — but they don't practice what they preach," Karma said.
