The ninth anniversary since the September 11 attacks is overshadowed by a nationwide debate over plans for a mosque nearby and a Florida pastor's threat to burn copies of the Koran.
U.S. President Barack Obama has called for religious tolerance as Muslims around the country feel increasingly under threat. "We have to make sure we don't start turning on each other," Obama said.
Terry Jones, a pastor from the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has called off his plans for an International Burn a Koran Day on the 9/11 anniversary, which have set off anti-American protests in Muslim countries around the world.
Jones has arrived in New York for talks with Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the proposed Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center attacks, but the imam said he had no plans to meet the pastor.
President Obama has defended the right of Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero.
Rallies both for and against the mosque will be held after the official ceremonies commemorating 2,975 people killed in the 9/11 attacks, New York City authorities said.
Four airliners were hijacked on September 11, 2001. Two planes crashed into the twin World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhattan. A short time later hijackers slammed another plane into the Pentagon while the fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
WASHINGTON, September 11 (RIA Novosti)
