Obama on 9/11 anniversary: We're not at war with Islam, but with terrorists

U.S. President affirms the right to build mosques in Manhattan, as Muslims protest plans to burn the Koran.

U.S. President Barack Obama vowed that the US was "not going to be divided by religion," at a press conference on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City on September 11, 2001.

	The Tribute in Lights are projected at Ground Zero, the former site of the World Trade Center.
	Photo by: AP

"It is absolutely important now for the overwhelming majority of the American people to hang onto that thing that is best in us: A belief in religious tolerance (and) clarity about who our enemies are."

"We are not at war with Islam," Obama said. "We are at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts."

Controversies have overshadowed the commemoration on Saturday of the terrorist attacks. Fanatic Muslims hijacked four passenger planes on September 11, 2001 and killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, where the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and in Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.

Obama also again weighed in on the plans for a New York City Islamic center near the 2001 terrorist attack site. Plans to build an Islamic community centre near the New York site have provoked opposition among politicians and family members of victims.

"Muslims should be able to build wherever other religious groups can build," Obama said, adding that the United States stood for equality of all men and women, and of their right to "practice their religion freely."

"What that means is that if you could build a church on a site you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on a site," Obama said at a press conference.

Obama did not directly mention the New York mosque, but his comments clarified earlier statements he has made about the controversy, which has become a national hot potato ahead of upcoming congressional elections.

Obama recognized "the extraordinary sensitivities around 9/11," but added that as commander in chief, he had "Muslims who are fighting in Afghanistan" for the U.S. To honor their service, Obama said Americans must be "crystal clear" that those soldiers "understand that we don't differentiate between them and us."

"It's just 'us'," he said.

The U.S. government is worried about a violent backlash, with tens of thousands of its soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as obscure Florida Pastor Terry Jones has threatened to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday, in protest of the Muslim religion.

	U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference at the White House.
	Photo by: Reuters

Obama said on Friday that he hopes the "individual in Florida prays on it and refrains from doing it."

Waves of demonstrations have rippled across the Muslim world against the plans to burn the Koran and have led to the death of at least one protester in Afghanistan Friday, when Afghan police opened fire on demonstrators in Faizabad.

The uproar also coincides with the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.