he had grown to admire the imam of a small mosque in lower manhattan: imam feisal abdul rauf. >> imam feisal now started introducing me to another side of islam. >> narrator: imam feisal belonged to the mystical sufi form of islam. his writings promoted america as a model for muslims worldwide. most muslim americans had never heard of him, but he was an established figure in interfaith circles. >> i had never experienced such a spiritual khutba. it was like a college professor was speaking to me about my faith. >> narrator: el-gamal invited imam feisal to lead his mosque. the imam had a bigger vision. >> he said, "sharif, what if we were to build the whole thing as a community center?" ( applause ) >> thank you. the objective of our community center was to be a rallying point, was to be a place where people could get to know about each other, where people would get to know about each other's religions. we want muslims to learn about christianity and judaism. we want members of other faith traditions to know about islam. >> and i'd like to introduce to you the future young women who ar

the man in charge at the time imam feisal abdul-rauf. has been pushed out of the picture. photo exhibit of children from all over the world. he was quick to point out the photographs were taken by a jewish man. and that indeed, some of his best friends are jewish. let me give you an example of what the class is writing in from -- this from new york magazine. standing two blocks away from the crews work on the freedom tower it left you wondering what all that business last year was about. >> the bottom line is they won. they had a lot of help from the landmark preservation commission in new york all appointed by mayor bloomberg. bloomberg was open about it. he said at the time there is no neighborhood in this city off limits to god's love and mercy. he didn't apply that to the 10th anniversary ceremony at ground zero. when all clergy were not invited. why done i say prohibited. so the mayor wants it both ways. he's afraid of doing anything to offend arabs. here we have like a stealth aircraft we have this story that came in and left. and they won. >> eric: why do you think