NEW YORK The controversy around the proposal to build an Islamic centre close to Ground Zero has caused a deep rift within those most directly affected - New Yorkers - with a new poll showing that two-thirds want the planned centre moved further away from the site of the 9/11 attacks.

The poll, conducted by the New York Times among 892 adults across the city, records that 67 per cent want to see the Muslim community centre built in a less controversial location.

Under the current plans, the $100m project for the 13-storey multi-faith centre would be built in Park Place, just north of the site of the World Trade Centre, where almost 3,000 people lost their lives when Al Qaida brought down the Twin Towers.

The remaining third of those New Yorkers sampled felt that to move the centre would be to compromise American values.

The findings of the poll suggest the dispute has had an impact on the city that has up to now prided itself on retaining its traditional tolerance even in the face of the terrorist threat.

The proposed centre, the brainchild of the moderate Islam group the Cordoba Initiative, has had a strong backer in the mayor of the city, Michael Bloomberg.

The survey suggests that among some New Yorkers there is a residue of anti-Muslim feeling. A fifth said openly that they feel animosity towards Muslims, and a third that they thought Muslims more sympathetic to terrorism than other sections of US society. The controversy surrounding the centre shows no sign of letting up. On Sunday a firebrand Christian televangelist, Bill Keller, has booked a conference room in a hotel just next to Ground Zero to launch his so-called “9/11 Christian Centre”. The preacher is branding his new ministry a direct response to the Muslim scheme. Keller has a track record of preaching against Islam.

The religious figure behind the Muslim centre, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is a leading moderate within the US Muslim community. He has recently been on a tour of the Gulf region sponsored by the US state department to promote religious tolerance.

The New York Times poll shows that although the city's residents are doubtful about the scheme, they do not like interference by outside politicians such as Sarah Palin, who famously called on peaceful Muslims to “refudiate” it. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service

© The Guardian