Muslim Community Center to be established near ground zero

The Muslim Community Center is part of a complex called Park51, planned for a site two blocks from ground zero.

The demand by the opponents of the project to stop the construction has been refused by the court decision.

The organizers of the project were Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam of a mosque in the financial district; Daisy Khan, his wife; and Sharif el-Gamal, a young real-estate investor born in New York. Their first public presentation of the project — an appearance at a meeting of Community Board 1, the largely advisory body that represents the neighborhood in Lower Manhattan — was on May 5, 2010.

City officials, particularly Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, defended the project on the grounds of religious freedom.