The best of intentions

The New York City community board endorsed the Cordoba House, a community center and mosque planned for construction near Ground Zero.

Significant opposition has emerged against the project. Sarah Palin even weighed in this weekend, tweeting, "Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing."

Should there be a mosque near Ground Zero?

I was not among those angered by the attempt by Carmelite nuns to maintain a convent at Auschwitz. Their motivation, I believe, was pure. However, the concentration and extermination camps there carry a history that requires a delicate sensitivity to the memory of the victims. The nuns may have sought something redemptive, but their particular perspective needed to be subsumed under the larger concerns Auschwitz raises.

It seems to me that the site of the September 11 attacks carries a similar sense of history that transcends the admirable desires of the Muslim community to express solidarity with or respect for the victims. It does not anger me that application was made to construct a mosque on the site, and I am loathe to ally myself with those who oppose the mosque on the basis of hatred or suspicion.

We may be facing the best of intentions, but no one group should symbolically claim the suffering that afflicts first the families and next the nation.

By Jack Moline  |  July 19, 2010; 4:24 PM ET Save & Share:                 
Previous: Shouldn't be prevented, but shouldn't be built either | Next: A peace-making mosque is NECESSARY near Ground Zero

The comments to this entry are closed.