Location, location
The letters in the most recent issues of NJ Jewish News saying the Jewish thing is to okay the building of the mosque near Ground Zero miss the point.
Opposition to the location of the mosque has nothing to do with religious prejudice. A parallel would be the planned convent next to Auschwitz, which even the pope opposed. There was no religious bigotry against Catholicism. It was just the wrong place to put a Christian holy place where the issue involved mainly Jews. No one is suggesting putting a Japanese cultural center next to Pearl Harbor.
The 19 hijackers were all fervent Muslims who committed the act in the name of Islam. While this is certainly a corruption of Islam, the sight of a mosque near Ground Zero would be as bad as the convent at Auschwitz. Convents can be built at other places. The mosque can be built at another location.
Michael I. Frischberg
Aberdeen
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