CBS 60 MINUTES: The Heated Debate Over New York's Islamic Center Scott Pelley Looks At The National Debate On The Planned Islamic Center Near Ground Zero

(CBS)  A plan to build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero set off a national controversy with anger, passion and more than a little misinformation. Opponents whipped up a fury, calling the project a grotesque mega mosque tied to terrorism.


Now, for the first time, you're going to see the plans for the center and you'll hear from the key players, including the people behind the mosque. Ironically the man who has the biggest stake has been almost completely out of the public eye. 


He's the developer who owns the project. He took us to the spot his critics call an affront to the memory of 9/11.

The focus of outrage is a former Burlington Coat Factory store on a dingy block in lower Manhattan. Real estate developer Sharif El-Gamal paid $4.5 million for it.

He told correspondent Scott Pelley he had bought what was previously an "abandoned" piece of real estate in July 2009.

According to El-Gamal, there was nothing in the building. "It had been vacant since 9/11."

Vacant, because part of the landing gear from one of the hijacked planes crashed through the roof. El-Gamal says he will tear this down to create a 16-story Islamic community center.

El-Gamal explained what will be part of the community center: "A restaurant, child care facilities, a pool. A media tech library, a world class auditorium that will seat up to 500 people."

He says membership will be open to all, but around ten percent of the space, two floors below ground, will be devoted to an Islamic prayer room.

El-Gamal is a brash 37-year-old Muslim and lifelong New Yorker who develops apartments and offices. He says he got his idea from a neighborhood center where he was a member, the Jewish Community Center. El-Gamal thought his project would be a step up for a seedy part of downtown and the community enthusiastically agreed.

The plan was endorsed by the mayor, the borough president and the community board. But that was last spring. Today, El-Gamal is described on the Internet as an Islamic supremacist.

"Who are you?" Pelley asked.

"I'm an American, a New Yorker, born in Methodist Hospital Brooklyn, to a Polish Catholic mother, to an Egyptian father," he replied.

"Let me make sure I have this straight. You are a Muslim who married a Christian girl. Your mother is Catholic. And you joined the Jewish Community Center on the West Side of Manhattan?" Pelley asked.

"I did. That's New York, though. That's New York," El-Gamal replied.

If real estate is about location, the question is how close is too close. We started at El-Gamal's building and headed to the World Trade Center. You can't see Ground Zero from there, but, when you make the corner, the World Trade Center is two blocks away.

"In the distance here, you can see the cranes where the new World Trade Center buildings are going up," Pelley remarked.

It took us another two minutes to walk to the edge of what the government officially designates as Ground Zero.

"But what do you say to those people who say that it is painful for them to have the idea of a mosque, even though it is two and a half blocks away?" Pelley asked.

"I was affected by the horrific events that happened that day as well. And I do not hold myself or my faith accountable for what happened during that horrific day," El-Gamal said. 


(CBS)  Of course the national argument isn't about measuring the length of two city blocks - it's about the distance between perceptions. If you believe Islam is a moral religion hijacked by terrorists, proximity doesn't matter.

If you believe Islam condones 9/11, this is too close.

"It got the unanimous approval of the community board…the people who live down there," Pelley remarked to Pamela Geller, who is a key figure in this debate. "How did this become your business?"

"It's not my business, it's America's business," she replied.

Geller is the Islamic center's most ardent opponent. Geller is a former New York media executive who writes a politically far right blog that mixes news, opinion and conspiracy theories.

"We live in a multi-cultural society, a pluristic (sic) society, with all different kinds of people. And how do we do that? We do that by getting along. And you don't build a 15-story mega mosque at Ground Zero, and talk and say that it's healing, and say that it's outreach. Don't spit in my face and tell me it's raining," she told Pelley.

Last December, Geller's appears to have been the first blog to rename the community center "the mosque at Ground Zero." Five months later, in May, a committee of the lower Manhattan community board approved the project unanimously. That led Geller to organize a protest at the next board meeting.

All the same, the board approved the project again, 29 to one. Then, on June 6, Geller held a rally at the World Trade Center.

By late summer the community board had approved the center four times. But major media had picked up Geller's label and across the country, politicians exploited the debate.

Geller kept writing, calling the project "an act of jihad" and "a grotesque flag of conquest on Ground Zero."

"To what degree are you obliged to tell the truth in your blog?" Pelley asked.

"That's all I do is tell the truth," she replied.

"To be accurate in your blog," Pelley asked.

"Okay, Scott," she replied.

"You moved the mosque to Ground Zero. It's not gonna be there. It was never intended to be there," Pelley pointed out.

"That building is Ground Zero. And I will say something else. Truth is the new hate speech. And you and I live in so tawdry an age that just telling the truth makes you a hero. And yet, there are so few heroes. Or makes you a devil, in the eyes of the media. That's all I do is tell the truth," Geller said.

"You think you're seen as a devil in the eyes of the media?" Pelley asked.

"Absolutely," Geller replied.

"You don't seem to mind that too much," Pelley said.

"I do mind it very much. What am I gonna do? Shut up? You're never gonna shut me up," Geller said. 


(CBS)  She's been her loudest condemning the head imam of the Islamic center, the spiritual leader. She described the rhetoric of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as "ugly, racist, anti-American, anti-Semitic."

"You've been called Jihadi, a friend of terrorists, a man who can't be trusted. So who are you?" Pelley asked the imam.

"I'm a man of peace, Scott," he replied,

Imam Feisal has led a congregation 12 blocks from the World Trade Center for nearly three decades. Born in Kuwait, he's been an American citizen 31 years.

"The reason there is so much antipathy to our faith is because of the radicals, the suicide bombers. That is not Islam. We reject it," he told Pelley.

Most people don't know it, but he was picked by the Bush administration to travel the Muslim world explaining the virtues of America. He's still doing that for the government today.

Now he's afraid there's danger the controversy could lead to violence.

"I wonder if you understand why many families who lost a loved one on 9/11 are hurt by this?" Pelley asked.

"I'm extremely sensitive to the feelings of the families of 9/11," the imam replied.

"Then why did you do it?" Pelley asked.

"Because we wanted to prevent another 9/11. We wanted a platform that enable us to speak, to strengthen the voice of the moderates," he replied.

"If you are so deeply concerned about the danger in America and the danger abroad why not move it? Why not just move it out of the neighborhood?" Pelley asked.

"Because it's the right thing to do," the imam replied. "It's the right thing to do. Our community wants it and now America needs it and the Muslim world needs it."

Asked what he meant by "America needs it," the imam told Pelley, "I'll tell you why Scott. We have to wage peace. The military campaign against the radical extremists from my faith community is a military campaign the campaign to win hearts and minds is an important part of that campaign. We know how to do it. And we're committed to doing it we are ready willing and able to serve our country and serve our faith tradition."

"And to that widow or that child who lost a parent, who is a perfectly reasonable person, and believes that this is wrong, you say what?" Pelley asked.

"First, we say we have condemned 9/11. I pray for the souls of their loved lost ones. If 9/11 happens there again, I wanna be the first to die. Muslims wanna stand right there to say that we are here. It's my duty as an American Muslim to stand between you, the American non-Muslim, and the radicals who are trying to attack you," the imam replied. 


(CBS)  The imam told us he'll have a board of directors for the center made up of Muslims, Christians and Jews. And he'll ask the U.S. government to approve sources of funding.

It occurred to us that there is, of course, another Ground Zero: 184 people were killed at the Pentagon on 9/11. One face of the Pentagon was rebuilt and a memorial and Pentagon chapel opened on the spot where the airplane hit.

For eight years now, every weekday at 2 o'clock you can hear the Islamic call to prayer in the chapel. Every faith is welcome. Islamic servicemen and civilians are among those who use the chapel most often.

The Pentagon chaplain in charge is Colonel Daniel Minjares. "I think this is representative of America, again, not just Army values, but what America, the best of what America represents, that various groups, various faith traditions can all use the same building. We understand each other better, and we support one another," he told Pelley.

"And there is nothing inconsistent about hearing the Islamic call to prayer at Ground Zero at the Pentagon?" Pelley asked.

"Not for me, there isn't," the colonel replied.

Back in New York, the developer doesn't need permission to go ahead. He's free to build if he can raise the money which could be as much as $100 million.

One thing most people don't know is that the prayer space part of the project already exists. Hundreds of Muslims have been worshiping in the abandoned building for more than a year, ever since a nearby mosque lost its lease. The mosque near Ground Zero is a fact. The only question is whether the community center will go ahead.

"The Islamic Community Center will open?" Pelley asked the imam.

"God willing," he replied.

"Tell me what you intend?" Pelley asked.

The imam's reply? "I intend to see this project succeed."