hall meeting recently were dead set against it. have we forgotten? what happened at 9/11. what happened that day is not islam. what happened that day is terrorism. reporter: coming out of that hearing, somebody said, the japanese would never have dared to build on pearl harbor. what makes this different? if you were at that hearing the way i was at that hearing, you come out understanding that there is a great need for dialogue now. reporter: el gamol says many people don t understand islam. but does that make it islama phobia? 100%. reporter: why? because the moderate voice of islam is not coming out. reporter: can you guarantee that this center will root out extremism or completely reject any extremists? 100%. we will not tolerate extremism. we will not tolerate extremism. reporter: and yet critics say the religious leader, iman