Religious freedom is enshrined in our constitution. I believe that all may believe what they would believe and should worship as they please.
This being said, however, it is a bad idea to put a Mosque near ground zero. After all, it was Jihadist Islamists that committed the horrendous act of plowing airplanes into the twin towers, destroying them and in the process killing themselves and nearly three thousand others. To build a mosque on this site would be seen by many in the Arab world as a victory for the terrorists.
To build this mosque is a slap in the face of the victims families.
Let the mosque be built, but not at ground zero.
Ground Zero mosque debate is about common sense, sensitivity to 9/11 vics, not religious freedom.
The Vermont Farmer's Blog 
I agree completly. It is a bad location at ground zero. Kentucky would be a much better location. I have the perfect location on my rural country road. It was a Beautiful Road until a Redneck Transplant to Detroit relocated back to Kentucky.Now my Road is Destroyed by a Junk Yard with no fences and junk right to the edge of the road.I propose Trading Locations!My Detroit Junk Man / even trade / For a nice new Mosque with a little pointy thing on the roof!They can even handle snakes! OLE KY HILL BILLY
Unlike certain christian sects, I don’t believe that handling snakes is an integral part of Islam. Of course, should they transplant to Kentucky, that might change. Gotta be something in the air down there.
Building a mosque near ground zero is only adding insult to injury. Bad, bad idea…
Not going to help Obama’s negative press problems either.
True. After the November elections, I think that he will have worked himself into lame duck status.
Linking religion to the terrorist attacks is a very dangerous thing to do. The Muslims who attacked were angry, misguided dangerous people, but the end result is creating more angry, misguided dangerous people.
You could pick any other characteristic they had, “The terrorists were between 5’8 and 5’11 inches tall”, and blame that and be just as accurate as blaming Islam. The 9/11 atrocities were not based on any fundamental Islam teaching. (I know we can take violent Qur’an quotes out of context. We can go tit for tat on that one with the King James Bible.) They were a small angry sect using religion as their excuse to blow things up.
Not long ago I saw a big pickup truck with a huge decal on the back with an eagle with a single tear coming out of its eye with an American flag backdrop with the words “Everything I needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11” on it. I wanted to puke.
Three thousand? Three thousand lives is nothing compared to the violent, bloody history of the Christian church. The Inquisition and Crusades alone can be counted in hundreds of thousands. Not recent enough? Building a church on Native American soil is probably considered a victory against the heathen redskins, yet nobody seems to mind the butchery when it’s done by the home team. It’s impossible to know the body count of the Native Americans, because by the time we bothered to count them, there were not that many to count.
If God (Yahweh) tells someone to eat another human being, we don’t bulldoze all Christian churches in the neighborhood because the thought “offends” real Americans. We consider that one guy crazy, punish only those responsible and let the peaceful worshippers be. If Allah tells someone to crash a plane, we do not segregate people who share a superficial quality in common with the attackers. We consider them crazy, punish only those responsible and let the peaceful worshippers be.
The last statement was reason. The next statement is opinion. I will agree that we should not be building mosques near ground zero. Neither should we be building churches, synagogues, mandirs or any other temple. Religion is a hate-based mental illness, albeit a federally protected one.
Back to facts. In America, you do not have the right to not be offended. You do have the right to worship where and however you please.
As I wrote, the individuals who wish to build a mosque in lower manhattan certainly have that right, and I will support their right to exercise it. What I stated was that it is a bad idea.
I remember when the ACLU defended the rights of the AMerican Nazi Party to march through the streets of Skokie, IL, a primarily jewish community. The Nazi party certainly had a right to congregate and a right to march wherever they chose. They chose a jewish community in which to march. Why do you think they did that? They did that because it was provocative, to make a statement.
I am not saying that this is the reason that some wish to build a mosque near the site of one of the deadliest days in American History, to be provocative, but I can assure you of this, there are many who indeed do believe this. And this is not the way to build a bridge between muslims and the broader American community at large. It is a bad idea.