Freedom Mosque

The whole mosque at ground zero controversy has brought up two major points to me.  It started out “cultural center” in the media then went to “victory mosque” then finally “terror mosque”.  Personally I don’t have a problem with the proposed cultural center or its location.  It’s not like it is on the actual site ( like the multi-religious center at the Pentagon, which has operated since reconstruction was completed).  So if a mosque, all be part-time one is at one ground zero why not both?  The one at new the New York site is around a corner and down the block, how far away is far enough? 

All this is just a precursor  to what I think will be the real fight once the New York memorial is completed.  You know there will a Christian cross at the site and a Star of  David  for the Christians and Jews who died there, but what about a Islamic Crescent  for the Muslim victims of the attack.  If people don’t want a mosque two blocks away are they going to tolerate Islamic symbols on the site itself.  Muslims died in the buildings as well and they are just as dead as the people of other religions and I’m sure they will want their family members memorialized as well.  Did other religious groups who had victims in the Oklahoma City bombing want to tare down churches near the site because it was a southern Baptist who blew up the building?  I do not recall that happening.

On the other side the whacked-out Florida preacher that had planned to burn Korans on September eleventh may have made a point without even knowing it.  In the America I live in, as ridiculous as this idea was, most reasonable people would consider this a form of free speech.  But trying to burn a Koran or criticize a Muslim or Islam is likely to get you killed.  The founder of the New York mosque is unwilling to move his project because he’s afraid it will incite violence from the radicals.  this raises the question is Islam and freedom really compatible?  If you have to tiptoe around and be careful about what you say or do for fear of upsetting a bunch of radicals, that is no way to live in any society.  All fanatics must learn that nothing anyone says or tries to burn gives them the right to kill people or blow things up just because you disagree with them.  Compromising and putting up with ridiculous people, acts, and statements is the price of living in this country.