Poll: 7 in 10 Americans Oppose Ground Zero Mosque
A proposed "mega mosque" to be built near New York City's Ground Zero has little support nationwide, suggests a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll.
According to the new survey, which came out Wednesday, nearly 70 percent of all Americans oppose the controversial plan to build the 15-story Cordoba House just two blocks from the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Just 29 percent, meanwhile, favor construction of the Muslim facility.
Broken down by party affiliation, 54 percent of Democrats said they oppose the plans for the Muslim-led project while 82 percent of Republicans said they disapprove. Meanwhile, 70 percent of independents said they are against the proposal.
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The poll also showed opposition did not vary widely by age.
"Support for the controversial project is slightly higher among younger Americans than older Americans, but even among those under the age of 50, six in ten oppose the plan," reported CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
Plans to build the $100 million Cordoba House just blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks have sparked an emotional debate throughout the city as well as nationally.
Those behind the Cordoba House say the project "is about promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture."
"Cordoba House will provide a place where individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, will find a center of learning, art and culture; and most importantly, a center guided by Islamic values in their truest form - compassion, generosity, and respect for all," they add.
Opponents of the Muslim-led project, however, say building an Islamic center so close to Ground Zero would be demeaning and offensive to the 2, 976 victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Some even say the construction of the Cordoba House would mark a victory for those who sought and still seek to terrorize the American people.
Last week, the project cleared its first hurdle when New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to deny landmark status to the building on the proposed site – the old Burlington Coat factory on Park Place, which housed a piece from one of the hijacked airplanes that crashed into it. Landmark status would have made it difficult for the Cordoba Initiative to raze the building and build its center there.
The American Center for Law and Justice, in response to the commission's vote, filed a lawsuit challenging the decision.
