Tone Shifts as Protests Follow 9/11 Memorial

NEW YORK (Sept. 11) -- The ninth anniversary of 9/11 was commemorated in Lower Manhattan with a solemn ceremony of reflection and remembrance, but the focus and tone shifted as demonstrations for and against a planned Islamic cultural center and mosque got underway nearby.

The Rev. Terry Jones said he had "totally canceled" his plans to burn copies of the Quran in Gainesville, Fla., but the rancorous anti-Islam mood he espoused was evident near ground zero. Shortly after the memorial service for victims killed there, a man from North Carolina burned pages of the Quran, and another protester from Pennsylvania tore out pages of the Islamic holy book and coaxed the anti-mosque protesters to buy it as "toilet paper."

"It is tough, it is durable, it doesn't tear," he said to the onlookers, some of whom laughed while others looked shocked.

Such incidents gave a harder edge to a day that in past years has been devoted to remembrance and national unity. Even some who had come to Lower Manhattan to demonstrate against the planned mosque appeared unhappy about the divisive atmosphere.

"The protest could have been done tomorrow," said Michele Belloli, 58, who said she had already helped block construction of a mosque in her neighborhood in Staten Island.

"It isn't nice for the families of the victims to see us arguing on the day of their sadness," she said. "It hurts just to be down here."

Other protesters, however, asserted that 9/11 was an ideal day to marshal public sentiment against the controversial project, known as Park51.

"I think it is completely appropriate to have this rally today, because 9/11 is what it's all about," said Mary Jane Plaza, who came from Connecticut with her husband and headed to the anti-mosque rally after attending the memorial service.

Thousands of people turned up for both the pro- and anti-mosque rallies. Groups of protesters from different parts of the country vigorously thrashed out the merits and demerits of Park 51 -- in most cases reinforcing each others' existing views.

Within the anti-mosque camp, some protesters said they took exception to the location of the mosque and voiced suspicions about the source of the funds behind the project. Others were there to express a more general antipathy to Muslims in the U.S.

"Muslims will never be American citizens, they don't fit, they don't assimilate," said one elderly protester from Illinois, who declined to give her name. "Let's call a spade a spade: I want them out, not in."

Protesters held up placards like "Islam is intolerant," and "No Bloomosque, no Obamosque mosque, no victory mosque," mocking the support President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have shown for the Park51 project.

At the rally in favor of the mosque, demonstrators focused their criticism at the opponents. "Some people are trying to exploit this historic moment for political gain," said Congressman Keith Ellison, the first American-Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress, and one of the few elected officials to show up at the pro-mosque rally.

"They are so many religious crackpots here calling themselves red-blooded Americans," said Bill Steyert, 67, a Vietnam War veteran representing "Veterans for Peace" at the pro-mosque rally. "If they truly believed in the Christ, then they would love their neighbors."

The rival protesters also accused one another of spreading misinformation about Islam and the purpose behind the Islamic Center. One man on the pro-mosque side carried a signing reading, "Fox News makes you hate."

Belloli said that two months ago she would not have been able to articulate her reasons for opposing the mosque, but now she knows why. "This mosque has made me really read, and Muslims build mosques in areas they think they have conquered," she said.

The anti-mosque rally was interrupted several times by protesters from the other camp who were ejected. "They are spreading a message of hate and they are being protected by the police," said one as he was being escorted away by New York police.

Khalid Latif, the imam of New York University, said that while Muslim students had no uniform reaction to the popular opposition to the mosque, the scale and tone of it has come as a shock to many of them.

"I think they're in awe of the cruelty and the lack of compassion in the rhetoric, which has turned into hate crimes," he said.

"They're insensitive people," countered Ron Silverados, a 57-year-old road striper from Long Island attending the anti-mosque rally. "I'm tired of saying this but this isn't a religious issue ... it is a moral issue."

The protests have left many American Muslims confused about how to react, said Faiza Ali, a representative from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose director, Nihad Awad, has suggested calm. "American Muslims and Muslims around the world should spend September 11 reaching out to people of other faiths and beliefs to build bridges of respect and understanding," he wrote in a recent statement.

While neither seemed plentiful in Lower Manhattan today, Bill Love, a member of the Lower Manhattan Community Board which approved the Park51 project, took a longer view. "I promise you that when that project goes up on Park Place, 10, 20, 30 years down the road, someone will point it out and say, 'You know what? That was a big national controversy,'" he said. "People will shake their heads and say, 'How can that be?'"