It wasn't just a bunch of residents, it was an organised campaign by a designated hate group, boosted by Fox and backed by many Democrats.

The mosque and interfaith cultural center was going to be at least two city blocks from the site of WTC, but both the name 'the Ground Zero Mosque' that stuck and the campaign itself was started by Stop Islamification Of America.

It was an offshoot that was specifically started at the request of the leader of Stop Islamification Of Nations in Europe, which is a straight up anti-Muslim hate group, proscribed in some countries despite their own government's Islamophobia, and connected to other racist orgs like Generation Identity and the English Defense League here in the UK.