30 Mosques In 30 Days, A Ramadan Road Trip.

Yossi Kaplan, a Lubavitch rabbi at Chabad Jewish Center next door, said he was approached by people seeking his opposition to the project - but waved them off. The two faiths were enjoying solid relations, to the point where they shared parking lots and Muslims helped with tasks that Jews cannot perform on the Sabbath.

The rabbi expected nothing less from his neighbors, regardless of religion. This is America, Kaplan said, and this is how it's supposed to be.

"We're just good friends. We're really good neighbors," he said. "There's never been any issues."

“It was so freeing and so calm,” Mr. Sareshwala, 47, said in a phone conversation from Mumbai, where he is now based. “It had the feel of a real mosque. And the best part is that you are in the epicenter of capitalism — New York City, the World Trade Center — and you had this island of spiritualism. I don’t think you could have that combination anywhere in the world.”