A mosque at Ground Zero

Cordoba is the name of a Spanish city where Christians and Muslims lived and worked together in a time where crusades were all the rage. It is also the name of the mosque planned for New York City, two blocks away from Ground Zero, and that’s where the controversy begins. 

Here are the two sides to the argument. A mosque anywhere constitutes religious freedom, plus there is no direct line of sight from the planned building to Ground Zero. But others feel it hurts victims’ families, not to mention there is a claim for historical preservation, because as the plane crashed into one of the towers, a jet engine fell and struck the side of the building where the mosque is planned to go.

A university poll found that 52 percent of New Yorkers opposed the project, but the zoning and planning committee voted 29-1 to approve the mosque, and the city’s mayor agrees with the committee. What’s not clear is whether or not the New Yorkers in this poll understand what the mosque is really intended for.

The mosque will be just a small portion of the actual building and it will really function more like a YMCA or community center. It was planned as a place to foster interfaith relations and greater tolerance for the city and will house art spaces, a swimming pool and an auditorium.

This building is about fostering community growth. It’s not meant as a religious slap in the face. And there’s still the biggest fact of all: Muslims are not synonymous with terrorists, and relating the entire religion to the extremists who attacked New Yorkers is just as bad as saying that all Christians are like the Oklahoma City bomber. Should we zone any Christian church so that it’s 50 feet from the site of that bombing? Of course not!

Like many of the Tea Party who are objecting to the mosque, Sarah Palin has chipped in her two cents via Twitter. Her tweets read, “Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing,” and “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.”

She was criticized first because “refudiate” isn’t a word, but even more for the idea that she is singling out Muslims as though they too weren’t affected by 9/11. That’s not the case, especially for the Imam planning the building. In all reality, the Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, served and worked in that same area in NYC for over 25 years. He’s a New Yorker and a Muslim who planned the mosque and community center. He felt the effects of that day more than Sarah Palin, because he lived it.  

While this building has brought out debate on the American healing process of a great tragedy, it has also raised the idea that America is the most religiously free country in the world. We don’t ban women from wearing full hijabs on the beach or dictate which religious clothing is acceptable in school.

Americans have kept a remarkable distance from interfering in religious practices for the majority. This mosque would be just one more testament to our ability as a nation to keep government out of religion. What right do any of us have to tell another person how or where to pray? Quite simply, we don’t. This mosque could be a community builder, a healer and a perfect example of our freedom of religion.