President Barack Obama said his support for the right of a Muslim group to build an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the project. “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there,” Obama said yesterday in Panama City, Florida, during a trip with his family to the Gulf of Mexico. “I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding. That is what our country is about.” Obama addressed the controversy over the center for the first time on Aug. 13 during an annual White House iftar dinner, marking the breaking of the daily fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. His remarks drew criticism from some Republicans and opponents of the plan to build the center on Park Place, two blocks from the target of the 2001 attacks. “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” Obama said at the dinner. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”
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