SHOW SOME SENSITIVITY TO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER FAMILIES

I happen to agree with President Obama that Muslims have the right to build a mosque on private property just as any other faith has the right to build a house of worship so long as they comply with all local regulations. But does that make it right for the Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero?
　
What Obama failed to tell his audience was that along with that right, Muslims must be sensitive to the feelings of those who lost loved ones in an attack carried out in the name of Islam. The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center took the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent people. Almost all of their families and friends see Ground Zero as a shrine to their lost loved ones, hallowed ground that is not to be desecrated by the presence of a nearby mosque.
　
I do not for one minute believe the intent of this mosque is to promote understanding between Muslims and other faiths, as clamed by those who want to build the mosque at that particular location. I believe the proposed mosque is a deliberate ‘in-your-face’ provocation that has nothing to do with America’s cherished right to freedom of religion. Why else would they turn down New York Governor David Paterson’s offer of some state land for a different mosque site.

To New York’s Muslims I say, show some sensitivity to the World Trade Center families and build your mosque at a different location! And that’s what Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama should have told them too!