Mosque To Be Built At Ground Zero

If you haven't heard, there are plans approved by New York City to allow an Islamic Center, including a Mosque, swimming pool, culinary school, and an "interfaith" gathering place to be built at Ground Zero. Whether you agree or not, the Muslims in New York have a right to build their mosque wherever the law allows. If there is no violation of building permits, codes, or other such stipulations of the law, they should be allowed to build their center. If the Muslims are denied, the law has presented a case for Jewish, Buddhist, Hindi, Satanist, Mormons, JW's, and/or Baptists from building a place of worship as well.



Of course, legalities and rights aside, there is another issue here, the issue of responsibility. I dare say that building a Mosque on or near Ground Zero is an act of considerable irresponsibility. It would amount to a Shinto Temple being built within a mile of Pearl Harbor, or a Baptist Church being raised next door to the Dome of the Rock. Although my eschatology permits me to loosely consider a rebuilt temple as something of a Baptist Church, I cannot imagine a Crusade Baptist Church being built in a Muslim country as going over too well.



Understand, this is more than a matter of poor taste. It represents a serious misunderstanding of the sentiments of most Americans toward the Muslim faith and a huge gaff in their ability to win some PR points by, having now been legally cleared, backing off. Nevertheless, this is systemic of the Islamic fundamental principle of winning at all cost.



However, whether the mosque is built or not, the most distressing part of this sad saga unfolded today (August 13 , 2010) when President Obama weighed in on the discussion. Once more, as he did by saying the Cambridge Police force acted "stupidly", and then insulting disabled Americans by claiming he should bowl for Special Olympics, he has acted utterly un-presidential. By weighing in on a subject that is best left to the local law and to local officials, he has set the agenda and embolden Muslims to forget decorum and civility, and build their mosque away from an area ripe with racial tension.



Whether these Muslims are of the radical flavor or not is completely beside the point. It was Muslim men who flew those planes into the Towers and Pentagon. It was because of Islam, correctly interpreted or not, that over 2,000 individuals died that horrible September morning. And building a center to celebrate that religion on the spot memorializing their brutal murder is an affront to Western sensibilities. Shame on these people for not recognizing this and acting according to the "peaceful" faith that they attest belongs to Islam. The law may be on their side, but according to research 69% of Americans think they shouldn't build on that site. And it's not like there isn't available real estate in Manhattan that is far enough away from Ground Zero for an Islamic Center to go unnoticed. One would think they could afford a good PR firm and some good will!

********Update************
8/14/2010 7:33 pm
The prez has backed-off Mosque comments:

Obama Extends and Revises his Remarks

So, what side is he on?
BY William Kristol

"Today in Florida President Barack Obama "backed off" (as Politico’s Carol Lee put it) his defense of the Ground Zero mosque. Obama now claims that last night he was only defending the legal rights of the organizers: "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That's what our country is about. And I think it's very important as difficult as some of these issues are that we stay focused on who we are as a people and what our values are all about."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-extends-and-revises-his-remarks


***********Update # 2**************
8/14/2010 11:41 pm
The Prez has backed-off his back-off statement of Mosque

The White House on Saturday struggled to tamp down the controversy over President Barack Obama’s statements about a mosque near Ground Zero — insisting Obama wasn’t backing off remarks Friday night where he offered support for a project that has infuriated some families whose loved ones died in the Sept. 11 attacks.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41069.html