South Philly Review

Let’s get a couple of things straight right off about the controversy of building of a mosque at Ground Zero. First, it is not a mosque, but an Islamic community center that includes not only a place for Muslims to pray, but an ecumenical site that is open to serving all residents of the Lower Manhattan area. Second, the center is not being built at Ground Zero, but a couple of blocks from the site in a former Burlington Coat Factory abandoned building. Third, according to media reports, there are already several mosques in the surrounding area as well as a liquor store and porn shop. Fourth, American Muslims have been living in the area for about 27 years. Fifth, American Muslims also were among the 3,000 who died on 9/11. Sixth, our laws guarantee not only freedom of religion, but the right of owners to build on private property.

Some argue, as has President Obama, that there is a difference between having the right to build an Islamic center and the “wisdom” of building it near Ground Zero. Who gets to make that determination? Is it the White House, Fox News, Sarah Palin or the local zoning board? If it’s the local zoning board, then it has already been given the go ahead. Perhaps it is not too much to expect that Congress can concentrate on passing legislation to help the fi rst responders on 9/11 and funding additional security for New York City. If the right to build the center is trumped by those who believe we are at war with all of Islam, then First Amendment rights mean nothing at all.

Another thing about those odious analogies that are being passed around by folks such as Newt Gingrich; He compared the building of the Islamic center near Ground Zero to allowing Nazis to protest next to the Holocaust Museum.

Comparing law-abiding American Muslims to Nazis is as incredibly over-the-top as calling the President Imam Obama. Oh, you say Rush Limbaugh already did that? Gingrich is a history scholar, but he needs to be reminded that years ago the courts granted American Nazis the right to march down the streets of Skokie, Ill., despite the understandable protests from Holocaust survivors residing in that town. The Nazis wound up not marching, but the legal precedent was set nevertheless. And let’s be very clear, I sympathize with the discomfort of some of the 9/11 families, as well as those Holocaust survivors residing in Skokie, but defending unpopular causes is a necessary a by-product of our freedom.

Some folks argue, “Wouldn’t it be easier for the site to built somewhere else? Why would these American Muslims want to build where they are not wanted?” I heard the same argument when blacks were given the right to eat at the same lunch counters as whites in the South. Why couldn’t they just eat in their own restaurants? I thought we had already answered that question, more than 40 years ago. Incidentally, polls of residents in Lower Manhattan, by a large majority, have no problem with the center being located there. Why should we let outsiders trump the will of local residents?

I don’t profess to being able to predict what message our national debate is sending to Muslims around the world. Sometimes we get too concerned about how others perceive us when we should be more concerned about being true to our own principles. I also am concerned that the kind of hysteria being whipped up today about American Muslims is similar to the hysteria that led FDR to force Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II.

I still remember my Italian-American father telling me he and other Italian-Americans working as welders at the Navy Yard during World War II were viewed suspiciously by some because Italy was part of the Axis we were fi ghting. Can we calm down before we fi nd ourselves repeating a shameful period of our history?

Some argue Muslim countries don’t worry about tolerating other religions so why should we? Why? We are not those countries. Our soldiers have shed blood so that we wouldn’t be like those countries. We have every right to expect American Muslims to abide by our culture of tolerance just like the rest of us, but please stop the hypocrisy. It means you — Mitt Romney. How can Romney come out against the building of the Islamic center when the same kind of bigotry helped deny him, as a Mormon, the right to his party’s nomination for president in 2008? How about it, Mitt?

While on the subject of hypocrisy, how can those who protest to get the Federal Government off our back, then turn around and call for federal interference into New York City’s business? Whatever happened to their belief in strict adherence to the Constitution? These people want to change the Fourteenth Amendment and have lobbied for various other amendments to the Constitution every time it suits their political needs. At best, these politicians are Cafeteria Conservatives.

There are Muslims praying every week 100 feet from the other “Ground Zero” — inside the Pentagon — without controversy.

The group wanting to build the center are Sufi Muslims, the most liberal and ecumenical of the various Muslim sects, and the head Imam at the center has been invited to the White House by both Republican and Democratic presidents because of his stance against terrorism.

What is the current controversy really all about?