UNC-Chapel Hill is hosting a lecture later today by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. He's the man at the heart of a controversial plan to build an Islamic Center near ground zero in lower Manhattan. Bill Balthrop is a professor in the department of communication studies at UNC. He says the Imam will talk about religious tolerance and pluralism in the United States during this year's Weil Lecture on American Citizenship:
"Obviously much of the controversy surrounded the Park 51 Project but the Imam's project as we understand it is much larger than that. It talks about reconciliation and working across religious faiths and we thought that that was a particularly important topic for us to discuss at this point in time."
A Christian group opposing the Imam's plan in New York City is organizing a competing event at the Carolina Inn this evening.