Muslims regularly pray near Pentagon September 11 site

An aerial view of the Pentagon building in Washington, June 15, 2005.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While plans for a cultural center and mosque near the site of the September 11 attacks in New York have ignited a hot political debate, Muslims regularly pray at a chapel near where a hijacked jet slammed into the Pentagon nine years ago.

Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Mormons and Episcopalians regularly hold services in the multifaith chapel that was dedicated in November 2002 after reconstruction of the section of the Pentagon hit by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

"I've been here four years next month and the chapel and its function and role have never been an issue," George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said on Thursday.

Plans to build a mosque and community center two blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center towers in Manhattan have prompted public outcry and political divisions.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, have defended the right of Muslims to develop the site on private property near so-called Ground Zero, although Obama has said he would not comment on the "wisdom" of the move.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has split with the president over the issue, and Republican lawmakers have used it to attack Obama as being out of touch with the views of ordinary Americans.

With political sensitivities heightened over the New York project, the Pentagon chapel came under closer scrutiny after a speaker on a television talk show incorrectly asserted there was a mosque at the Pentagon.

"There's not," Wright said. "There's a multifaith chapel."

The chaplain's office estimates some 300 to 400 people use the chapel each week for organized prayers or services as well as individual prayer and meditation, he said.

DAILY MUSLIM PRAYERS

Muslims have daily prayers at the chapel Monday through Thursday as well as a worship service on Friday. Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Hindus and other religious groups also have regularly scheduled services.

At least 3,264 members of the U.S. military identify themselves as Muslims, according to official statistics compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center. About half serve in the Army, a fifth in the Navy and the remainder are split between the Air Force and Marines.

More than one in 10 of the Muslim service members are women.

By comparison, 3,095 members of the U.S. military identified themselves as Jews, 4,759 as Buddhists and 781 as Hindus. At least 2,529 identify themselves as Wiccans.

The largest denomination among U.S. service members is Roman Catholicism, with 222,039 members, and 160,000 people identify themselves as members of different Baptist churches.

More than 263,000 say they are Christians with no preference among the denominations, and 262,000 indicate no religious preference at all.

"Soldiers are not required to declare their faith for their official records and 'dog tags,' although many do," Wright said. "Those who don't may simply cite 'no religious preference' or 'other'."

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)