"I hope the people of New York, who can actually make the decision, will take into account public opinion not only locally but around the country," he said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
Ms. Khan said planners weren't considering moving the center, but she didn't rule out the option. "Right now it's not (being considered) until we consult with all our stakeholders.
We are deeply concerned, because this is like a metastasized antisemitism," said Daisy Khan, who is spearheading the project with her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. "It's beyond Islamophobia. It's hate of Muslims."Ms. Khan, appearing on ABC News's "This Week" on Sunday, vowed to push ahead with plans to build a 15-story complex two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan, saying there was "too much at stake."
The words could further inflame an already angry debate about the proposed location of the community center, which opponents denounce as a "victory mosque." Rival protests for and against the $100 million center were planned in lower Manhattan on Sunday.
Some politicians, including New York Governor David Paterson, have called for the project to be moved further away from the area where the World Trade Center collapsed. On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) also suggested the mosque's location should be changed.
Appearing with the head of the Jewish Community Center in New York, on which her project is modeled, she said a prayer space would only be part of a broader center.
"There will be schools, you know, small education forums, conferences, and it's basically become a place where ideas can be exchanged, but tolerance, mutual respect can also be extended," she said.
The project's backers are holding talks with the families of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in an effort to calm the controversy around their project, Ms. Khan said.
The imam behind the project is described by many as a moderate Muslim leader who has long called for reconciliation between religions. But critics have focused on comments he made shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to question whether he is as moderate as his supporters say.
Specifically, they point to comments by Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf that while the U.S. didn't deserve what happened on 9/11, its policies were "an accessory to the crime." Asked on Sunday about those comments, Ms. Khan said they had been part of a wider interview that addressed support by the Central Intelligence Agency for Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in the 1980s - when the U.S. was fighting a proxy war against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
