A summit of U.S. Muslim organizations is scheduled to begin Sunday in New York City to address a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero and the anti-Muslim sentiment that has emerged in the nationwide debate about the project.

It has yet to be seen whether the groups will emerge with a firm stand on the proposed community center. The primary purpose of the meeting is to talk about ways to combat religious bigotry.

But Shaik Ubaid of the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York, one of the groups organizing the gathering, said he has a growing sense that some American Muslims who initially had trepidation are now throwing their support behind the plan.

“Once it became a rallying cry for extremists, we had no choice but to stand with Feisal Rauf,” he said, referring to the New York City imam who has been leading the drive for the center.

Groups scheduled to participate in the summit include the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Alliance of North America and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The private meetings were to take place at a hotel near Kennedy Airport, and the group was planning to hold a news conference Monday at the site of the proposed Islamic center.

Gauging support for the center among U.S. Muslims is difficult. As a group, they are diverse, ranging from blacks who found the faith during the civil rights movement to recent immigrants hailing from opposite ends of the globe. They rarely speak with one voice.

Yet after a pastor in Florida injected himself into the debate by threatening to burn copies of the Quran, the proposed Islamic center has been embraced by some Muslims who initially were indifferent about the plan, partly in response to a sense that their faith is under attack.

“I think most Muslims outside New York City are more concerned about the backlash than the actual center, which most of them will never directly benefit from,” said Shahed Amanullah, the editor-in-chief of a number of Islam-themed websites.

“Grass-roots support is indeed building,” he said, “but that is probably more due to the pushback against the general hostile climate.”

The center’s proposed location two blocks from the World Trade Center site has upset some relatives of Sept. 11 victims and led to demands that it be moved. Critics say the site of mass murder by Islamic extremists is no place for an Islamic institution.

Have you checked out YWN Radio yet? Click HERE to listen!

(Read More: WSJ)