After facing what it saw as anti-Muslim sentiment at a public hearing last week, a Turkish organization has dropped its plan to turn a vacant school in South Park into a cultural center.

"As a group that promotes peace and dialogue, we have never encountered such negativity in our long history here," the West Penn Cultural Center board said in a statement yesterday.

The group will withdraw its application for a permit to turn the old Broughton Elementary School into a facility where members of the Turkish community could adapt to American culture while maintaining Turkish traditions and language. They also planned to worship in one of the classrooms on Friday afternoons.

At the public hearing, some residents said they didn't want the cultural center to renovate the school, claiming Islamic centers and mosques can harbor sleeper cells of terrorists.

Barbara Houston, program director of the South Hills Interfaith Ministry in South Park, which promotes interfaith dialogue, said she was devastated by the news. She attended last Thursday's hearing.

"I feel defeated. How heartbreaking for us. We should be ashamed in this community," she said yesterday.

George A. Smith, chairman of the township board of supervisors, tried to focus last Thursday's hearing on zoning issues, but said some speakers made comments that were "inappropriate."

"Some of the remarks were hurtful. It was unfortunate. That is not how one man should treat the other," said Mr. Smith. He conceded that the cultural center's decision to pull out of South Park will "make a lot of people happy."

Bekir Duz, a board member of the cultural center, said the group now will sell the old school, which it purchased for $100,000 last year.

Some residents accused the group of deception. Others warned that the community needed to limit its vulnerability by not inviting in groups that may harbor terrorists.

Members of the cultural center follow the teachings of M. Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic scholar and religious thinker from Turkey who now lives in the United States.

Mr. Gulen publicly condemned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and he posts articles on his Web site that decry Muslims who engage in terrorism.

In its statement yesterday, the board of the cultural center said residents living around Broughton Elementary School "came forward and made comments that deeply hurt members of the cultural center."

"WPCC has been living and working in Pittsburgh peacefully as a center for more than six years and many of our members have lived here for more than 10 year," the board said. "We are sincerely disappointed that the neighbors of Broughton school could not open their hearts to us. If they would just get to know us, if they would have accepted our invitations to get together and talk, we believe they would have understood us better."

The cultural center, which says it is dedicated to promoting interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding, counts among its members professionals, students and business people who work to bring together those of different communities, ethnic backgrounds and faiths.

They are well-known for their annual "iftar" dinners, which join religious and political dignitaries to mark the break of the Ramadan fast in the Islamic calendar.

"WPCC is looking for a peaceful and lovely environment to perform its activities. Pittsburgh has many open-minded and open-hearted people. ... WPCC will continue its search for a permanent home in other Pittsburgh neighborhoods," the group said.

The cultural center runs a private elementary school in Monroeville that is attached to a mosque and is science-oriented, but it doesn't have what it calls a "home" where it can preserve Turkish traditions.