If they are truly interested in reconciliation, they will realize how utterly insensitive this is and move the building further away. If they are not, and just want to build a mosque there and tell objectors to bite them, then fine, there is nothing stopping them, but then they deserve all the flak they get from people who think they are being insensitive assholes (and that includes me).

I don't care if these Muslims were supporters of the attacks or not, this is just as insensitive as (as someone else said) a Walmart at Wounded Knee, or a German cultural center next to a concentration camp, or a cotton plantation next to Martin Luther King Jr's grave, etc. After all, the builders of those things wouldn't have been participants in those atrocities either, but that wouldn't stop it from being seen as utterly insensitive.

We always have to bend over backwards to avoid the slightest offense to previously victimized groups, but suddenly, when WE'RE the victims we all have to roll over and turn a blind eye to any and all offense and insensitivity toward us, or a bunch of arrogant European pricks might come and sneer at us.

SHAME on the builders of this thing, and I hope the piece of shit is vandalized every freaking night. In fact, I wish every New Yorker would make the sidewalk outside the entrance their dog's official public toilet, and I don't give a shit if the builders and their patrons are offended. They've certainly shown that they don't give a shit if they offend people, so why are they worthy of any courtesy?

If they want respect, show some respect.

Flame me if you'd like, but that's how I feel and I'm sticking to it.