Shouldn't be prevented, but shouldn't be built either

Let them build their mosque? What planet are you, people, on? They can literally pick and choose where to build a mosque. We- the loved ones of the victims- can't. We can't even go to a regular cemetery to mourn our families and friends because THERE ARE NO GRAVES!!! We can't pick and choose. All we've got is the place where they died- and a scrap of our loved ones' DNA, that is if we were really lucky. That is ALL. How on earth can you be so insensitive? How can you throw us under the buss called political correctness with such incredible ease? It could have been YOUR loved ones. It was a miracle that my father didn't die that day- his company went bankrupt and everyone was fired. He worked on the 92nd floor. That's 92nd floor! He could have been one of those who had to jump to avoid being BURNED ALIVE. It's been almost nine years- and I still don't know how my friend died. If she was the one who had to jump. You are truly pathetic, I feel really sorry for you.

wakeuptime,

"The freedom of religion was the cornerstone for the founding of the United States."

It was one of the cornerstones.

"To deny anyone that human right, would make hypocrites of us all."

1. Not allowing someone to build a particular religious building at a particular location does not deprive them of their freedom of religion.

2. One group attempting to do the above does not make hypocrites of everyone.

"Religions by their very nature, spawn 'extremists'. Lord knows that Christianity has. And so has Islam. These extremists do not speak for the majority, and neither do the people who would deny the construction of a mosque near ground zero speak for the majority of Americans."

My point exactly.

"Muslims in America should be allowed to live in peace, work hard, raise decent families, and worship wherever they please."

Is all of the above impossible without that particular building, in that particular location, at this particular time?

let them build their mosque!!!

This debate is awful, and underscores how fragile our system and social beliefs are. The freedom of religion was the cornerstone for the founding of the United States. To deny anyone that human right, would make hypocrites of us all. Religions by their very nature, spawn 'extremists'. Lord knows that Christianity has. And so has Islam. These extremists do not speak for the majority, and neither do the people who would deny the construction of a mosque near ground zero speak for the majority of Americans.
Muslims in America should be allowed to live in peace, work hard, raise decent families, and worship wherever they please. The sooner that America realizes the we are at war with terrorists and not the Muslim community..the better.

A local minister got into big trouble during the first Iraq War by suggesting that Christians should be praying not only for the coalition forces, but for their opposite numbers in the Iraqi army. I see some of that here. What harm can a mosque do? Not all Muslims share the blame for what happened on 9/11. If we block a mosque, we'd best block buildings related every to other religion.

Americans paint with broad brush. But who to paint? Our tour guide at the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor was of Japanese descent. Should we have thrown him off the boat? Should Native Americans be banned from visiting the Custer Memorial in South Dakota? Are those who supported the ideology of Timothy McVeigh banned from Oklahoma City? Should we ban all whites from the Southern states because some whites are racist? The British burned the White House during the War of 1812. Why are their descendants allowed in DC today?

Build the mosque. My hope is that non-Muslims might take advantage of educational opportunities offered there to learn more about a religion and a people they are so quick to denounce.

Is ironic how we claim to be such a free society, yet we hide behind catastrophes to isolate a whole group of people.
SO are we to say that there shouldn't be a christian church next to where a terrorist act was perpetrated by a christian or a Jew?
Does the few racist whites represent all white people as resist?
I think situations like this are suppose to encourages us to dig more into why people do what they do? to learn more about others culture, religion and struggles. Weather we may agree or disagree with something, it does not take away other people's rights.

We were not attacked by the 1.5 billion muslims in the world. We were attacked by 20 people on US soil and perhaps a few hundred backers and has since risen to perhaps 20,000 world wide that use terror. We are at war with terrorists who hide behind religion. Bin Laden was not a religious leader and is certanly repudiated by a vast majority of the 7 million muslims here in America. Original terrorists attacked the "american way of life" not christianity. He said "pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy"—must be opposed and believes Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world. Don't let ignorance trump religious freedm in the US.

No, nothing sacred about Ground Zero. Unless you choose to put it in quotes, capitalize it, and recognize that in this context everyone involved knows to what you refer. If not sacred, it makes it special.

We -do- treat places like this the same way, the difference being that when previous events occurred, the spot attacked needed to be restored to functionality. There was a possibility of that happening here, but the cost was too great. There is always a monument of some kind near the spot of the event, however.

What's really at stake here is the sense of triumphal entitlement. I don't buy or agree that this is about muslim healing. If it were, then there would have been clear, vocal, absolute rejection of these events both at the time of the event and following. There would be symbols, community awareness gatherings, attempts for the community to engage the American public about Islam. Instead, the American muslim community remained mostly silent and allowed speculation to rule perception.

There has been ample opportunity to build this kind of center is available locations in Manhattan, any of the other boroughs, and for that matter in any other city, nearly nine years. It didn't happen.

Whether true or false, the perception is that the people that would do this are planting a flag on the pile of over 3,000 dead. No the dead aren't there, and neither are the buildings- but it's as close as you can get. The choices being made are too coincidental to be a pure, good faith request. And that's what is in poor taste. The fact that they willfully refuse to recognize that galvanizes not only the irrational parts of our society, but also some rational elements as well.

It's a poor choice to do it, and sadly I fear there will be ugly consequences if they choose to go ahead with it.

Cianwn

... for the sake of memory ...

What else should we do "for the sake of" than for memory?

This generation of Americans is not going to forget what happened.

And this generation of Muslims must live until their dying day, with this on their record. Maybe it was the act of extremists, and not representative of mainstream Islam, but it is for better or for worse, an event that will always be associated with Islam. That is something that they are going to have to learn to live with, and all of its consequences. One of those consequences is that a mosque cannot be built there.

Putting a mosque there is a little pushy. I think Muslims should back off on this. If they do not, then they do not need to keep repeating that Islam is a religion of peace, because actions speak louder than words, and no more words are necessary.

Nothing in the pastors post suggests that Ground Zero is "sacred". In fact his well reasoned arguement is a request that the planners of the mosques exhibit a modicum of sensitivity for the people that have experienced loss as a result of a radical few. I agree that what happened there was criminal and tragic, however I agree with Rev. Poling that we should not sacrifice the freedoms that we hold dear and forbid, or even through bureaucratic contrivance, to obstruct its erection. Bravo Rev. Poling! Well stated.

There is nothing sacred about "Ground Zero" and we need to stop calling it that. What happened there was both criminal and tragic, but we cannot allow some citizens to restrict the freedom of others for the sake of memory. We do not treat other places where people died in this way, and the former WTC site should be no exception.