Kathleen Parker is not always one I lean on for support. But when she is right, well….she is right. When is comes to why the mosque should be constructed in New York near ground zero she is right on target.
Reason tells us something else: The Muslims who want to build this mosque didn’t fly airplanes into skyscrapers. They don’t support terrorism. By what understanding do we assign guilt to all for the actions of a relative few?
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This is why plans for the mosque near Ground Zero should be allowed to proceed, if that’s what these Muslims want. We teach tolerance by being tolerant. We can’t insist that our freedom of speech allows us to draw cartoons or produce plays that Muslims find offensive and then demand that they be more sensitive to our feelings.
More to the point, the tolerance we urge the Muslim world to embrace as we exercise our right to free expression, and revel in the glory and the gift of irreverence, is the same we must embrace when Muslims seek to express themselves peacefully.
Nobody ever said freedom would be easy. We are challenged every day to reconcile what is allowable and what is acceptable. Compromise, though sometimes maddening, is part of the bargain. We let the Ku Klux Klan march, not because we agree with them but because they have a right to display their hideous ignorance.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
Would we show the same tolerance for Christians or Jews had the WTC been attacked in one of their names?
Seriously, which side would you be on had 19 Catholic terrorists done this in the name of Catholicism. Then on the anniversary of the attacks the local parish wanted to erect not just a church but a glorious towering mega-cathedral nearby, citing that the site was special because a piece of debris from the attacks fell on the property.
Regardless of the moderation of the Bishop, I’m certain if you were completely honest with yourself and others you would admit you would be vehemently opposed to such a project. BUT because we are speaking of Muslims, you support this project.
I think the supporters are out of touch, intellectually dishonest, or suffering Stockholm Syndrome.
I think you are wrong.
I would never subject my country to the nutty ideas that the right-wing nuts are now taking us all. I know it is August, and every year something like this gets to the top of the pile. But as for me and my home the constitution still wins the day. So no, had Catholics conducted the affairs of 9/11 I would not stop another of their castles from being built.
But for the last nine years, at least, people have been trying to block the construction of mosques all over the country. So while you are trying to come up with a new scenario, let is talk about the real one that the conservatives are undertaking every day.
The subject of the highest profile Muslim structure, 51 Park in New York City, will have a basketball court and a culinary school. Two floors will have a prayer room. The other eleven will host movie nights, performances, group dinners, etc — it’s basically a Muslim YMCA, open to everyone. These moderate Muslims are doing everything we could ask of them. They’re trying to build a bridge in the communities they live in, trying to show the world that Muslims are cool and interesting and diverse, and proving that being a Muslim does not equal being a terrorist.
That they will make their point then will make it harder for the nuts like I suspect you are to paint them as you wish them to be for your political gain.