Note Celias comments above based on Phoenix defining "city block" as a quarter mile. Last I checked that's more than twice the distance between the proposed mosque and the WTC site.

Right, and the USS Missouri would probably block LOS if I decided to salvage the Akagi and park it on the side not occupied by the USS Arizona. Still an awful idea.

We're having this conversation because, while 911 wasn't about Islam, and while a lot of people want to keep it that way, a few very loud people want very much to change that. Some want to use 911 to demonize all Muslims. Some want to use 911 to show that since Islam and Muslims suffered, in some cases even died, it's a chance to demonstrate Islams peaceful brotherhood by building bridges. Right. If they want to build bridges and foster healing, fulfill the charitable pillar of Islam and donate to a victims relief fund. They don't even have to put anyones name or title on it to say, "SEE? Islam does GOOD things!"

I have no bigotry toward them. I have very strong religious differences (duh) and am skeptical that anyone could gain the kind of prominence and influence they have in their community DESPITE the staggering level of stupidity it would take to NOT see all this coming, but I bear them no ill will.

Exactly. They do still have every right to comment on it though. At the risk of parroting the far right, I've heard NO ONE suggest that the mosque CAN'T be built, just a lot of people saying it SHOULDN'T be, at least not at that location. Even Sarah Palin is on record to that effect, even though she said almost in the same breath that Obamas earlier statement that it would be un-American to stop it shows he "doesn't get it. " Legally, if not morally, in America you can judge both people and their behavior--you just can't impose your judgments on them.

My mistake; I was under the impression Manhattan was larger than 500 square feet (how'd they fit hundreds of mosques into that small a space? )

If this isn't about rehabilitating Islam after 911 why does it have to be a mosque and community center? Why not just a community center with a non-sectarian area for prayer, reflection and meditation? Is it because there is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is His Prophet, or just because it wouldn't serve the goal of saying, "We're Muslims, and that wasn't us!" Why can the healing only begin if it's wearing a crescent moon...?

Actually, the US Constitution says I can say almost anything I please. The same part that guarantees their right to build the mosque guarantees my right to bitch about them building the mosque; it took a SCOTUS ruling less than a century old to deny my "right" to cause a riot through speech.

I can't recall who or where it was now, because various aspects of this issue have been discussed in no less than four separate (and long) threads, but someone yesterday made the point that occurred to me the day before (and far better than I could think of putting it, which is why I didn't try. ) No, no one would say anything if a Christian church were built across the street from the WTC, but they might feel differently if a Catholic church with the mission of healing the damage of the Crusades and spreading the word that the Crusaders killed Christians, too, were built in, say, Damascus. Or Antioch. Or Jerusalem. Some might say it was in bad taste. Others, of course, would just declare jihad and start training suicide bombers.

The reason they want to build a mosque there is the very reason they shouldn't. They have every right to do so, just as I have every right to smoke a pack a day, but we also each have the right to call the others behavior foolish.