Feisal Abdul Rauf, New York Times Op-Ed contributor  and chairman of the Cordoba Initiative and the imam of the Farah mosque in Lower Manhattan, speaks out for the first time after plans to build a controversial Islamic community center there have been debated nationwide.

“AS my flight approached America last weekend, my mind circled back to the furor that has broken out over plans to build Cordoba House, a community center in Lower Manhattan. I have been away from home for two months, speaking abroad about cooperation among people from different religions. Every day, including the past two weeks spent representing my country on a State Department tour in the Middle East, I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels.”