The recent brouhaha over the erection of a community center near the site of the 9/11 attacks has been fueled by some of the most base aspects of our society.
At its heart the argument against the center is paranoid and racist. Because an Islamic group is building the center, people across the country are rushing in to show their ignorance and bigotry by opposing construction, not with cool-minded logic, but with shouted threats and racial epithets thinly veiled in patriotism.
Much has been made of the community center being seen as some sort of monument to the terrorists of 9/11. This argument reduces the entirety of the religion of Islam to a base perversion of its true form. In the same way that not all Catholics are pedophiles, not all Jews are misers, and not all Baptists are televangelists, not all Muslims are terrorists.
In fact, a mosque near ground zero should be seen as a victory over the terrorists. It shows that the U.S. is a nation that rises above the rhetoric of terrorists and defends the rights of its minorities, even against the majority.
That this argument continues to be fought, despite it being so constitutionally clear cut, is a testament to the institution of prejudice in this country. To have spent so many years learning about the civil rights and women’s rights movements only to have to see the same story play out again and again is the kind of thing that makes me disappointed in the citizenry of this country.
I will even go so far as to say that if you are against the erection of the Cordoba House two blocks from ground zero, or the building of any mosque in the country, you are a paranoid racist, and it is time for your kind to step aside and allow a more tolerant generation to take the stage.
David Holmes is an economics junior. He can be reached at
When considering whether or not a mosque should be built at ground zero, consider whether or not there can be too much religious freedom. When a religion uses theology to justify acts of aggression, how do we respond? The answer is not so easy.
While we do have a duty to protect the right to practice religion freely, we also have a duty to protect our own citizens against those who use violence against us. Currently, congress is investigating various mega-churches for using theology for profit, so why would it be any different when a religion creates mass hysteria after murdering thousands?
Obviously, not all Muslims are terrorists, but how many Muslims need to be terrorists before any sort of procedural justice is sought on the part of families who lost someone in the 9/11 attack? Consider how many Jews would react if any group tried to build at the site of the concentration camps…
When the Carmelite nuns wanted to build a convent on the site of one of the concentration camps, many Jews were outraged, regardless that of the fact that these nuns had helped Jews elude the Nazis.
The pope eventually concluded that while the nuns were placing their convent there out of respect for the lives lost, it would not be counter-intuitive if the Jews hated the nuns for building the convent.
The Muslim community in New York, like any other religious organization, must respect ground zero as hallowed ground for all Americans, not any single religious community.
Chris Backes is a philosophy sophomore. He can be reached at
