Touchy Topic - Mosque Near Ground Zero

I am about to speak out on a very unfavorable topic, the Mosque near Ground Zero. This is a very tough situation. It was Muslim extremists that killed almost 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks. A tragic day in America. I was against this when I first heard bits and pieces on the news. After doing research of my own I am now leaning on the side for the Mosque. Let me explain the facts I found and please keep an open mind about this when reading it.

1. A Mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. It is just like a Church to Christians. It is not a memorial. The English language falsely translates it to memorial when it really is a place of worship. Only Muslim extremists believe in killing people despite what other people may believe.

2. Many people are comparing the Mosque to a tribute to Hitler. You can only compare this situation to Hitler if there was a memorial dedicated to Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. A place of worship is completely different than memorials for the World’s worst offender of terrorism and crimes against humanity.

3. Muslims have been worshiping in another area near Ground Zero for years prior to the 9/11 attacks. We only know about the Mosque in the news now because of the new building proposal.

Now after I found some of these simple facts I thought to myself in the Christian religion we believe Jews killed Jesus. In America we allow Synagogues and the freedom to practice the Jewish religion. It was Adolf Hitler’s Christianity extremist view against Judaism that led to the Holocaust and the murder of an estimated 11 million Jews. Have we banned Christianity in America or in Germany? Has Christianity been banned in Israel? Absolutely not. Maybe this is America’s opportunity to understand the Muslim religion. Can you imagine what it must be like for a decent Muslim American with so many people against them just because of their religion? What about all the hate crimes against Muslims right after the 9/11 attacks when these people did nothing wrong. Isn’t it against our beliefs to discriminate a person because of the color of their skin or religious views? There are bad Muslims out there just as there are bad Christians.

While not the ideal location with Americans still healing from 9/11 we need to consider religious freedom in our country and promote understanding of the Muslim religion. Muslims need healing as well for those that have escaped terror in the Middle East and those currently being discriminated against in our country for matters out of their control. I think Americans would be in an uproar even if it was a mile away versus two blocks just because this is all over the news. My concern with the Mosque near Ground Zero is the hate crimes and vandalism that may happen there. I think the considerate thing to do would be to build the Mosque further away from Ground Zero. However, if for any reason that is not possible due to loss of members because it is further away, lack of the type of property they are looking for (it is NYC), etc. then we need to accept this for what it is. This is not meant to be a slap in the face to Americans.

To end, if you read this and still are completely against a Mosque near Ground Zero at least I provided you with some facts and things to think about. There are a lot of false assumptions currently out there and I hope I helped clear up some of the confusion.