On Aug. 25, Bangladeshi cabdriver Ahmed Sharif was attacked by his passenger who spewed hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric before slashing the driver's throat. The attack comes amid nationwide high-octane anti-Muslim rhetoric over plans to build an Islamic center and mosque a few blocks away from Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Perhaps the loudest voices against the project have been those of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, both Republicans.

The attack against Sharif took place in Lower Manhattan, raising real fears about anti-Muslim sentiment taking an ugly turn against Indians and South Asians living in this country, akin to the post-9/11 attacks on some members of the community.

If there is one group that can speak from experience about being a minority religion under stress, it is Indian Muslims, many of whom have lived alongside the Hindu majority in India. Now living alongside a Judeo-Christian majority, their unique insight adds depth to the controversy surrounding the proposed $100 million, 13-story Islamic Center and mosque.

Indian Muslims, like most immigrants who arrive in the United States, felt that sense of freedom and opportunity this country provided. Even if Sept. 11, 2001, took some of the shine off of that enchantment, they continue to look upon the United States as a haven from discrimination. But just when they thought some of the anger against Muslims was receding, the mosque near Ground Zero has reignited emotional fervor against Islam and threatened their peace of mind.

"When I came to this country, the thing I liked most was the people – they had a brash common sense approach, they did not discriminate. I tell you, people here are as perfect as people can get," enthused Najid Hussain, a former professor of oceanography at the University of Delaware who now runs his own environmental lab.

"But this (mosque) controversy is surprising and seems to have become a movement," he told News India Times, as if surprised by the disproportionate reaction.

Experts on the subject have drawn parallels with how Japanese Americans were prevented from building Buddhist centers after World War II.

"I know Imam Feisal very well. He is more like an Indian Sufi," Hussain said, referring to Feisal Abdul Rauf, the founder and CEO of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and the force behind the proposed mosque.

Hussain concedes that among Muslims worldwide, there is an anger and discontent with the United States over its policies in the Middle East. But here in America, "We don't want polarization. I have personal experience of polarization." Hussain is the son-in-law of Indian lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, who was reportedly burnt to death in his own house during the Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002.

The mosque should project American values and not fall into the "wrong hands," and if that cannot be assured, he said, the mosque should not be built. At the same time, he is tempted by the idea that Muslims could regain some lost ground. "The credibility of Islam was lost there (Ground Zero), so if the credibility can be regained there, it would be great." He offered a face-saving solution. "I would not give in and change the location right now. I would wait a few weeks till this jingoism has played out and the Palins and Gingrichs make fools of themselves, and then we should decide to move it," Hussain suggested.

Some Indian Muslims feel it is not in the community's long-term interest to be rigid about the location. Kaleem Khwaja, a NASA scientist, said there are some who feel it is an "unwise" project and should be dropped, but that is a very small number. Khwaja said his own opinion has been changing over the last few weeks. "My opinion is it should still be in Lower Manhattan but move it away (from Ground Zero)."

Khwaja and Hussain recall the Babri Masjid-Ram janmabhoomi dispute in India. The site in Ayodhya, which houses a mosque, is held sacred by Hindus. Khwaja and Hussain believe the razing of the mosque by Hindu mobs in 1992 and the resulting violence and bloodshed could have been avoided if the mosque had been relocated.

On the other hand, Omar Khalidi who heads the Architecture Library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has studied and written extensively on mosque and Hindu temple architecture in North America, believes the project should go ahead to prevent demonizing Muslims.

"Would we disallow a church being built near Jallianwala Bagh?" he asks referring to the spot in Punjab where British troops gunned down hundreds of civilians in a park in Amritsar on April 13, 1919. "Would we disallow a gurdwara near where Indira Gandhi was shot, or a Hindu temple where Mahatma Gandhi was killed?"

In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for ordering Indian troops into the sacred Golden Temple shrine in Amritsar. On Jan. 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was killed by a fellow Hindu for what some saw as betraying the Hindu cause in the partition of India.

California-based Manzoor Ghori, executive director of Indian Muslim Relief and Charities, said a non-issue has been made into a concern and that the project is not just a mosque but rather a community center.

"It is a community center and should be taken as that – just as any other Jewish or Hindu community center is. We should follow the laws of the land. The voice of sanity has to be heard," said Ghori.

He recalled when a gurdwara was to be built in San Jose, California, it engendered opposition but was ultimately built. "The right-wing, Tea Party or rednecks have always been there," he said.

He nevertheless wondered if the mosque will ultimately be built because Imam Rauf does not have the $100 million needed for it.

"There is a lot of discussion going on among Muslims here, but it is distracting from the real issues of the community," said Ghori, whose organization has been busy collecting funds for victims of floods in India. "I don't see it as a victory for one side or the other. Like many projects that we do, if there is a gurdwara or masjid, there are neighbors who object."

Saeed Patel of New Jersey, national coordinator of NRIs [Non-Resident Indian] for a Secular and Humanitarian India, indicated he is flexible about the location of the mosque but dislikes how opponents have equated the mosque with terrorists. "After this controversy is over, I would personally move away because I don't like it – to be confrontational," he said.

On Aug. 22, the confrontation over the proposed mosque and Islamic center was ratcheted up when hundreds of supporters and opponents of the project came out on the streets of New York City.

The public face of the mosque project is New York businesswoman Daisy Khan, a Kashmiri Muslim who immigrated to the United States when she was 15. She is co-founder and executive director ASMA and Rauf's wife.

Khan is facing the cameras trying to project a reasonableness she said is missing from the debate. In an Aug. 12 interview with Democracy Now, a left-leaning radio/TV station, she said the idea for the mosque dates to 1999, that its vision was to institutionalize Islam and "Americanize" it and that the local community board supports the endeavor.

"And, you know, we are already in the neighborhood. And we, you know, are New Yorkers. We are Americans. So we didn't see ourselves as the 'other,'" Khan said on Democracy Now. In a later interview following the Aug. 22, protests, she is quoted in the New York Post as saying about the mosque, "Of course, it has to go ahead. There's so much at stake." An alternate site, she said is not an option "right now" until all stakeholders have been consulted.

New York-based physician Najma Sultana, a psychiatrist and political activist, thinks Khan and Rauf should consider all options.

"The organizers should consider all options. They are doing so," she said, adding there was nothing rigid about the location even though the law is "on our side."

"Our prophet, peace be upon him, was the ultimate negotiator and deal maker. He was very pragmatic," Sultana told News India Times. "I'm being very pragmatic. I am appealing that we all have patience, keep the debate healthy. I am not attacking the critics."

Twenty-four-year-old Zaheen Khan, who works in the sales division of his famous fashion designer father Naeem Khan's label, told News India Times he blames President Barack Obama for fanning the controversy. "I see at fault President Obama. He did not take the time to talk to victims' families before he pronounced on it. I can see their point of view," he said.

The president, at an iftar party at the White House, said he endorsed building a mosque near Ground Zero because the country's founding principles demanded no less.

"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," he was quoted as saying in news reports.

Later he seemed to soften his stance saying: "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That's what our country is about."

Shaheen Khateeb, 54, an executive in the New York fashion design industry who lives in New Jersey, said the mosque project and Muslims are becoming scapegoats for a bad economy as elections loom. "Rick Lazio (the Republican running for governor of New York State) should have been focusing on the shortcomings of the Paterson administration. Instead, he looks at the polls and makes the mosque his main issue," he told News India Times.

Mayor Mohammad Hameeduddin, of Teaneck, N.J., a largely Jewish town where he was recently elected mayor, echoes these views.

"Whether the mosque gets built or not, jobs are the issue. The mosque is not what is going to create jobs. The Republicans have nothing to run on so they are talking up this xenophobia to bring out their base," he told News India Times shortly after breaking his Ramadan fast with 30 other Muslims, where he said, the mosque subject was not even broached.

Saeed Patel called it an embarrassment for the country if the mosque does not get built at the proposed site and criticized Gingrich for sharpening the rhetoric by questioning whether a church would be allowed in Mecca.

"Nobody is asking to build a mosque in the Vatican," Patel Reuters bristled. "It (the mosque) is two blocks away; the Imam is a Sufi, the most peaceful religion."