WE Blog

First, some facts. The proposed Muslim community center site is not at ground zero. It’s two blocks north of the World Trade Center site. What’s being proposed is a community center with meeting rooms, a swimming pool, a day care center and auditorium as well as space for religious services. It would have an interfaith board and offer interfaith programming. The project also wouldn’t be the first mosque near ground zero. It wouldn’t even be the second. Two others have been operating for decades, one only four blocks from the Sept. 11 site. Should those religious institutions be ejected? The center will be on private property with the zoning it needs and all necessary municipal approvals. Do mosque opponents believe the government should seize it? Deny it based on religion? Angry protests over proposed mosques are breaking out around the country. So former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a bandwagon of other politicians are finding political traction peddling divisive religious fear — equating all Muslims with fundamentalist terrorists. Why not appeal, instead, to our better nature — to American ideals of religious freedom, to the part of human nature (not to mention the elemental Christian message) that seeks to love our neighbor instead of hate? Apparently, they figure they’d get no boost in the polls from that. — Charlotte Observer editorial

We’re told this controversy is mainly about religious tolerance, but too many questions remain unanswered to take such bromides at face value. Consider Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who’s heading up the project. He’s described as a moderate Muslim who wants to build interfaith understanding. If so, why insist on a multistory complex so close to where 3,000 Americans were incinerated by Islamic jihadists? If this is about tolerance and sensitivity, shouldn’t mosque organizers grant the sensitivity they demand of others and accept an alternate location? One of the mosque project’s most obvious red flags is the lack of information about funding. Where’s the money coming from? Rauf and other organizers won’t say. Why not? A Muslim group truly interested in fostering goodwill would be willing to accept an alternative site. That Rauf and his backers have refused sends a clear message that undermines their professed commitment to religious understanding. — E. Thomas McClanahan, the Kansas City Star