Editor, Times-Union: The liberal defenders of the Ground Zero Mosque usually make three claims. They claim Cordoba House isn’t at Ground Zero, it isn’t a mosque, and that it violates freedom of religion to deny Muslims Park 51 as a building site (“3 Reasons the Ground Zero Mosque Debate Makes No Sense,” Gladstone 8.20.10. Cracked.com). It’s too bad that liberal advocates for the Ground Zero Mosque are being undermined by the very people they are trying to help – the Muslims.
The first claim liberal apologists make is that Cordoba House isn’t even going to be built at Ground Zero. However, Feisal Abdul Rauf, and imam and chief promoter of the project, has referred to the location as Ground Zero. The proposed site of Cordoba House is the Burlington Coat Factory struck by the landing gear of one of the hijacked jet liners crashed into the World Trade Center. If Muslims can call the debris field part of Ground Zero, why can’t the rest of us? (“Fact Checking the AP ‘Fact Check’ on the Ground Zero Mosque”, Frank Gaffney, 8.20.10, bigjournalism.com).
The second claim liberal apologists make is that Cordoba House is supposed to be a community center with a prayer room, not a mosque. However, Daisy Khan, the wife of Imam Rauf, spoke at a public meeting about Cordoba House and said, “There are 200 mosques in New York. What’s the problem with another?” If Muslims can call Cordoba House a mosque, why can’t the rest of us? (SIOA at Manhattan Community Board meeting on the 9/11 mosque – the fix was in Robert Spencer, May 25, 2010, jihadwatch.org).
The third claim liberal apologists make is that opposition to building Cordoba House at Park 51 denies religious freedom and is promoted by “Islamophobia.” But freedom of religion doesn’t guarantee anyone the right to build a house of worship anywhere they want. I know of a group of Christians given a plot of land specifically for building a church. But local residents didn’t want a church in their neighborhood. Because of community opposition, the local government declined to rezone the area for church construction. Interestingly enough, the Christians did not go on a shooting and burning rampage. Though disappointed, they did not whine about being victims of “Christianophobia.” If communities can oppose construction of a church, why can’t communities oppose construction of a mosque? As I said in a previous letter, “Islam’s Threat” (Times-Union, Sept. 9, 2010. Candlepowerusa.com/hardball.html), the Ground Zero Mosque symbolizes Islamic suprematism, not freedom of religion, a right Islam denies everyone else.
