The red circle in the photo is the location of the planned community center (Park51).
The building of Park51, the controversial mosque and community center two blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, has raised furor over the last couple of months from two groups – these who don’t want to see a mosque built so close to the site of America’s worst terrorist attack, and those who believe that every religious group has the right to practice their religion freely.
The Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the project, argues that effort this is akin to the Chautauqua Institution, the 92 Street Y or the Jewish Community Center. In other words, it’s just a gathering place and community center.
This brings me to the point I want to make here. Just how far is far enough to build a mosque in Manhattan?
Did you know that the center is being built by a private organization on land it legally owns? Twenty-nine out of 30 lower Manhattan community-board members voted to approve it.
According to UCLA constitutional-law professor Eugene Volokh, “By every legal standard, the case for allowing Park51 to be built is [an] open and shut [case].”
If you stood at the front entrance of Park51, you would not be able to see any of the 16-blocks that the WTC once occupied.
Did you know there was a Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the South Tower?
And, there is a mosque, Masjid Manhattan, four blocks from Ground Zero.
Tell me, how far is far enough? Three blocks?
This whole thing is ridiculous.
