Mosque near ground zero prompts soul-searching

Randi Kreiss

Not every controversy is resolved with an easy thumbs-up or thumbs-down — not if you try to use your heart and soul rather than the knee jerk. And if you add your brain, the decision-making becomes even more prickly and challenging.

On Aug 3, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission removed the last impediment to the construction of a 15-story mosque and education center two blocks from ground zero. The commission voted unanimously to permit the existing building, at 45-47 Park Place, to be torn down, clearing the way for a Muslim house of worship not far from where the twin towers once stood.

The towers, of course, were destroyed on 9/11 in a terrorist attack perpetrated by radical Muslims from Saudi Arabia. The proposed project has stirred raw feelings of rage and loss.

Survivors of 9/11, many relatives of the nearly 3,000 who died that day, community leaders, citizens of New York and people across the country have expressed opposition to the mosque so close to the site of the 2001 disaster.

Politicians, some speaking out of conviction, others seizing a political opportunity, have been making headlines. The Sarah Palin crew sees easy targets: mosques, veils and imams.

Others, including moderate Muslim groups, have supported the plan, describing it as a sign of hope and progress, a bridge between Islam and other religions. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke passionately in support of the mosque, saying, “To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists — and we should not stand for that ...

“... The attack was an act of war, and our first responders defended not only our city but also our country and our Constitution ...,” Bloomberg continued. “We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights ... and the freedoms the terrorists attacked.”

The mayor, I believe, took a courageous position. His political opponents and many of his supporters and friends not only disagreed, but took offense at his support of the mosque. Various groups, civic and political, vowed to fight vigorously in the courts to prevent the project from going forward.