Build mosque

A vitriolic campaign against a proposed mosque near the site of the World Trade Center has overtones of religious intolerance and stereotyping.

The mosque would be part of Cordoba House, a 13-story building that would be a Muslim community center. The Cordoba Initiative plans to build a religious center at Park Place, which would be torn down for the project. But it is too close — just two blocks — from "ground zero" for angry opponents who see it as an offense to those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade center by Islamic jihadists.

"A sacrilege on sacred ground" and "a monument to terrorism," opponents have called it.

The mosque is part of a building that would house an Islamic cultural center that backers say would help bridge the religious divide and misunderstandings about Islam.

At a recent hearing on the mosque proposal, one Muslim woman reminded the audience that members of her faith, including her fireman brother, were victims in the attack too.

What was a New York City issue has also been injected into the state's gubernatorial campaign and drawn opposition from national political figures.

In the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Carl Palladino says he would use eminent domain to block construction. His opponent, Rick Lazio, has demanded that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the apparent Democrat nominee, investigate the source of funding for the $100 million project.

Rep. Peter King, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have also joined the opposition, who make an emotional argument by linking the Park Place site to ground zero even though it is two blocks away.

So would three blocks be too close? Or four blocks? Where should the boundaries be drawn and the "no mosques allowed" signs hung out? And would the ban be limited to just mosques? Allowing churches and synagogues would be discriminatory.

New York City Mayor Bloomberg, defending the project, said. "Government should never — never — be in the business of telling people how they should pray, or where they can pray." He's right.

This is about our basic American freedom of religion. Allowing the mosque to be built would reaffirm our religious tolerance and American principles attacked on 9-11.