december. it was front page news in the new york times. no one objected to our establishing such a center. rabbi arthur schneider was quoted. the rabbi of the jewish community center, with whom we had spoken and who welcomed the idea and who has given us enormous cooperation and support in telling us what works, what doesn t work, how to do this. led, is toe idea, so establish something like a musl y. you have the ymca was created 130 years ago to improve relationships between what was then called the american protestant religions, by having young men and young women of course, it was separate at the o time, ymca, ywca, come and bond by doing sports together and other programs together. it s been a worldwid phenomenon. the 92nd street y was the first attempt by the jewish center where you would create th kind of bonding. we are now, today, where the jewish community and the catholic community was maybe 70 years ago, a century ago. and this is our time and our turno do that. a c
he s been imam of the mosque in lower manhattan for 27 years. he plans to build an islamic community center called cordoba house a few blocks from ground zero. these plans have generated a national debate over tolerance, sensitivity, religion an d sparked emotional protests against the project. the imam joins us from new york. he s with cnn s soledad o brien. he agreed to sit down for an rt interview, in part, because ki soledad is working on a documentary about what it s like to be muslim in america. here s soledad o bri with the imam. all right, larry. thank you very much. imam, thank you very much for talking with us. thank you, soledad. you re just back from the middle east. you ve been gone for about two months. and you ve been pretty quiet about the controversy that has been raging about the proposed struure right near ground zero.ve the debate, while you ve been a gone, has gotten louder, and it s gotten angrier. why are you lking now?th well, i didn t think it
welcome back, everybody. we re talking to imam feisal and we ll continue our conversation. did you think this was going to ing be controversial? are you surprised? yes. really? yes. as i said, the story first came out in last december in the new york times. no one objected. is it an indication that the bridges you ve been building maybe aren t such strong bridges? and i know you talked about being a bridge builder a lot. if you weren t aware of the controversy that would follow? well, as i mentioned, the story first broke out in last december. it was front page news in the new york times. no one objected to our establishing such a center. rabbi arthur schneider was quoted.
imam feisal abdul rauf next on larry king live. good evening. feisal abdul rauf is the founder and chairman of cordoba initiative. he s been imam of the mosque in lower manhattan for 27 years. he plans to build a community center called cordoba house a few blocks from ground zero. these plans have generated a national debate over tolerance, sensitivity, religion and sparked emotional protest against the project. the imam joins us from new york. he s with cnn s soledad o brien. he agreed to sit down for an interview, in part, because soledad is working on a documentary about what it s like to be muslim in america. here s soledad o brien with the imam. all right, larry. thank you very much. imam, thank you very much for talking with us. thank you, soledad. you re just back from the middle east. you ve been gone for about two months. and you ve been pretty quiet about the controversy that has been raging about the proposed structure right near ground zero. the debate, wh