By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN —Two-thirds of New Yorkers believe the mosque and community center near Ground Zero should be moved somewhere else, a new Quinnipiac University poll found.
The sentiment was strongest among Republicans, 95 percent of whom said the builders of the center should voluntarily move the mosque away from Ground Zero.
But even Republicans overwhelmingly agreed that the mosque’s backers have the right to build the center wherever they want. Seventy-eight percent of Republicans, and 80 percent of likely voters across New York State, supported that right.
"Almost all New Yorkers agree that America's belief in freedom of religion gives Muslims the right to build the mosque," Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
Still, opposition of the project remains strong.
Just 32 percent of New Yorkers said it would be "appropriate" to build the $100 million, 13-story center, called Park51, while 57 percent said it would be "wrong to do so."
Support for the center was strongest among Democrats, 50 percent of whom called the location appropriate. But 90 percent of Republicans said it would be wrong to build the center just two blocks from Ground Zero.
Quinnipiac’s poll, released Friday morning, surveyed 751 New York State likely voters from Sept. 16-20 and has a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.
