Building A Controversy

My personal views on the entire Cordoba House/"Ground Zero Mosque" issue is that A) there are already plenty of mosques in Manhattan, B) that's because there are plenty of Muslims in Manhattan, and C) it's like a YMCA, only for Islam, which is the kind of thing you should find in Manhattan anyway.

Building a place like that in Manhattan only proves that America's view of religious tolerance is superior to that of the twisted hatred that AQ preaches, but not if you don't believe in religious tolerance, apparently.  NRO's Daniel Foster shakes his head at the notion as the last hurdle to building the Cordoba House was vaulted 9-0.

Commissioner Christopher Moore spoke movingly of his watching from a nearby subway entrance as the planes struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. But he also said the desire to protect the Park Place location because of its connection with the attacks was misguided, comparing it to an attempt to landmark “a guardrail on a highway where fatalities have occurred.”

When the votes were counted and announced, some members of the audience began shouting: “Shame on you!” “This is a horrible betrayal!”

Andy Sullivan, a construction worker who said he had helped man the “bucket brigades” at Ground Zero in the days after the attacks, asked loudly of the commissioners whether they had lost loved ones on 9/11.

“Be sure to look in those cameras,” Sullivan said as the commissioners left stage, “and apologize for this disgrace.”

Later, Sullivan told reporters that the controversy surrounding the mosque is far from over.

“You’re going to have a problem getting labor there,” he said. “Everyone I’ve talked to will not lift a finger to build that disgrace.”

Somehow, I'm betting in this economy you'll find people who want to build the center.  Good thing this is America, where we really do value religious freedom and we're proud of the fact.