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THE QUESTION
A mosque near ground zero?
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?
Posted by
Elizabeth Tenety on July 19, 2010 4:06 PM
FROM THE PANEL
No more victories for Bin Laden
There is an irony in that the very people who claim to defend America's traditional values are the ones who are so very willing to hand over victory after victory to Osama Bin Laden.
Posted by R. Elisabeth Cornwell, on August 17, 2010 1:59 PM
The great "Ground Zero mosque" hoax
Do we really want to give the government the right to pick and choose which religions get to build where?
Posted by James Standish, on August 13, 2010 12:14 PM
Islam needs more tolerance, not more mosques
There are those who say that we are the ones at fault, we need to better understand Muslims and Islam, and the planned center and mosque near Ground Zero will help in that process. Actually, our politicians need to stop making excuses for the violence fundamentalist Islam supports
Posted by Ramdas Lamb, on July 26, 2010 2:42 PM
A question of sense and sensibility
A mosque near Ground Zero shows a lack of tact.
Posted by Adin Steinsaltz, on July 26, 2010 2:07 PM
A mosque near Ground Zero is unacceptable
It is inappropriate for a mosque to be at Ground Zero, and for Muslims to insist that they have the right to have a mosque there is counterproductive to the spirit of reconciliation and healing that we all seek.
Posted by Richard Land, on July 22, 2010 6:00 PM
Let Christian faith seek understanding
Should there be a mosque near ground zero? Ask the 1.57 million Jewish people who inhabit New York City. Ask the Christians in New York City. Or - let America continue to be America, and be a place where people have freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, which is different than freedom of worship
Posted by Matt Maher, on July 22, 2010 5:41 PM
Great irony in outcry over Ground Zero mosque
For years, public discourse has called for a great moderate Muslim voice to counter extremism. Now, when such a voice is seeking to be heard in meaningful and helpful ways, it faces severe backlash and strong opposition - indicating a continued fear and ignorance of the Muslim faith, even at its most peaceful.
Posted by Welton Gaddy, on July 22, 2010 12:51 PM
Center an attempt to prevent the next 9/11
This center is an attempt to prevent the next 9/11. What could be a better monument to the victims of 9/11 than a community center whose very presence is an affront to extremists everywhere?
Posted by Feisal Abdul Rauf, on July 21, 2010 3:56 PM
Why not an interfaith monument?
Why can't Ground Zero be the place for healing? Why shouldn't New York, and the USA in general, give the world a lead in Interfaith understanding? It is truly amazing how we human beings, in what we would like to think of as the enlightened 21st Century, have reduced religion to meaningless shreds.
Posted by Arun Gandhi, on July 21, 2010 3:46 PM
Mosque at Ground Zero a troubling thought
To see a mosque at that particular site feels like an "in your face" gesture. I am surprised at my own reaction. Christianity forces us to look at ourselves and see why we need grace. I need grace, big time, on this one.
Posted by Susan K. Smith, on July 21, 2010 2:37 PM
What will we gain by allowing this to happen?
A mosque near Ground Zero is not about tolerance, but triumphalism.
Posted by Cal Thomas, on July 21, 2010 1:12 PM
Land of the free, home of the mosque near Ground Zero
We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. We believe in liberty and justice for all. We are brave enough to allow our brother and sister citizens who are Muslims to be free enough to build a mosque and community center.
Posted by Valerie Elverton Dixon, on July 21, 2010 12:04 PM
Let 9/11 be mourned with monuments and mosques
Let the 9/11 tragedy be mourned with museums and monuments to those who lost their lives, and let the building of mosques, churches, synagogues, temples, Dharma centers - and ideally a world religions' Temple of Mutual Understanding - serve as anticipation of a time when such crimes against humanity will never more be perpetrated in the name of anybody's fanatical idea of any Deity or ideology!
Posted by Robert Thurman, on July 21, 2010 9:59 AM
No religious basis for 9/11
While opposition to the opening of an Islamic center at Ground Zero is certainly not surprising, it reflects a dismal level of intolerance, bigotry and ignorance that continues to plague our country.
Posted by Hadia Mubarak, on July 20, 2010 8:27 PM
Balancing rights and prudence
It's time to acknowledge that the understanding of Islam that made Ground Zero into Ground Zero lies within, not outside, the spectrum of Islam as it is understood and practiced around the world.
Posted by Tom Flynn, on July 20, 2010 4:09 PM
No better place for mosque than near Ground Zero
What better place for a mosque than near a place where some misguided followers of the faith corrupted its teachings and committed unspeakable acts?
Posted by Max Carter, on July 20, 2010 1:14 PM
Religion was defamed at Ground Zero
The terrorists that left a Ground Zero in their wake perpetrated a single day of murder against this country in the name of any religion unmatched in modern history.
Posted by Aseem Shukla, on July 20, 2010 12:16 PM
How far away would be far enough?
At the same time, a mega cultural center and mosque just blocks away from a place where Muslims (no matter that I think they are wrong in their interpretation) killed thousands of my fellow countrymen seemed at best callous, and at worst an in-your-face ostentation.
Posted by Pamela K. Taylor, on July 20, 2010 11:07 AM
Religious freedom to the rescue
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) is a federal statue enacted in 2000 by unanimous consent in both the House and the Senate. Its purpose is to safeguard the religious liberties of Americans, including groups whose places of worship are under fire by local zoning boards or nearby citizens.
Posted by Stephen Prothero, on July 20, 2010 10:52 AM
Neither mosque nor at Ground Zero
This entire bogus controversy is part of a widespread and dangerous anti-Islamic sentiment that is gripping America. Let's stop pretending that there is actually debate here.
Posted by Reza Aslan, on July 20, 2010 10:36 AM
Mosque as hallmark of religious liberty
If religious liberty is an American hallmark, then a mosque near Ground Zero would be an American landmark to our nation's commitment to religious freedom for all.
Posted by Robert Parham, on July 20, 2010 8:42 AM
Mosque at Ground Zero: the tragedy of blanket accusations
Though the sentiment of those who are affronted by a Muslim center being built so close to Ground Zero is regrettably understandable, the only thing that most Muslims would hear in the refusal to allow that Center would be that all Muslims actually are blamed for 9/11.
Posted by Gene Davenport, on July 19, 2010 10:30 PM
A mosque at the heart of America
Sarah Palin would have us believe that it is a stab to the heart to erect a mosque within a stone's throw of the former Twin Towers. I say, the closer to the heart of America any mosque is built the better.
Posted by Clark Strand, on July 19, 2010 8:24 PM
Mosque is insensitive; so are pandering politicians
Observing Constitutional principles may be bothersome, but that's a small price to pay for the liberties our Constitution guarantees.
Posted by Herb Silverman, on July 19, 2010 7:37 PM
A peace-making mosque is NECESSARY near Ground Zero
There are many reasons why this mosque near Ground Zero is a good idea--it is a way to actually make a change for the better in this country, deal directly with the fear and suspicion directed at Muslims for no reason other than the fact that they are Muslims, and also address as yet often unacknowledged public sorrow for Muslims who lost loved ones on 9/11. It is, in fact, NECESSARY to act your way into the change you want to see.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on July 19, 2010 5:46 PM
The best of intentions
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.
Posted by Jack Moline, on July 19, 2010 4:24 PM
Shouldn't be prevented, but shouldn't be built either
In most Muslim-majority countries Christians are severely restricted in their efforts to build and establish new churches, often by means of bureaucratic resistance and the unfair application of zoning codes. Those of us who speak out against this sort of injustice can hardly endorse the same.
Posted by Jason Poling, on July 19, 2010 2:40 PM
