The project -- called Park51, but often referred to as the "Ground Zero Mosque" -- is modeled after Manhattan's 92nd Street Y community center and is intended to be open to the entire community.
Park51 is not exclusively a place of worship. It would comprise a fitness center, basketball court, swimming pool, restaurant, a library, and a prayer area amongst other facilities.
This would be the first project executed specifically to meet the needs of a growing community in New York, which is home to more than 600,000 Muslims, according to Columbia University researchers.
The project has been sharply criticized, especially the US Republican Party because of its proximity to Ground Zero. A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ibrahim Hooper, described the debate as "the lowest point" in Islamophobic rhetoric.
"We're seeing it nationwide," he said. "You literally cannot turn on a radio today without hearing a right-wing radio talk show host slamming Islam in the most corrosive of terms."
It would appear that terming Park51 a mosque by the media is another attempt to spread Islamophobia in the US as the country nears the ninth anniversary of 9/11.
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