Mosque Near Ground Zero: My Internal Dilemma

I have a piece of disturbing news. So disturbing, in fact, that I'm apprehensive to publish it online for the virtual community to read.

I think Sarah Palin may have a point.

Please note that I am fervently anti-Palin.

This issue has me flip-flopping like no other. As someone who always has an opinion--and likes to make that opinion known--it frightens me that I can't make up my mind; it frightens me that I'm not appalled at something that came out of Sarah Palin's mouth.

According to The New York Times, Palin called the proposal to construct a community center that includes a mosque near ground zero “an unnecessary provocation” and urged “peace-seeking Muslims” to reject it.

Of course, I believe in the right to freedom of religion. I believe every person should be able to practice whatever religion he or she chooses wherever he or she pleases. This is America, after all, and we embrace (or at least, nominally embrace) everyone with open arms.

That’s the point President Obama put so well while addressing the issue: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”

And so, I agree with Obama. Of course I do! I’m a liberal, open-minded person. I shouldn’t be flip-flopping, because it’s very cut and dry! Freedom of religion is freedom of religion, and there’s no reason to condemn the construction of this community center because of its ironic location. The people building the community center are not the same people in Al Qaeda!

Yet somehow, something inside of me says that the location for this mosque is wrong. I feel horribly politically incorrect right now, but it’s the truth.

Why must this mosque be in this location? Why there?

As aforementioned, I am well aware that these Muslims are not terrorists. As Obama puts so well, “Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam — it is a gross distortion of Islam.”

Still, I feel the location is inappropriate and inconsiderate. To many, including the families of victims of 9/11, the construction of a mosque near the site of such tragedy might be interpreted as a slap in the face.

Not to say that we shouldn’t make people aware that these are two different groups of people and let them continue believing otherwise. They are two different groups of people. Let me repeat that once again: They are two different groups of people.

Bear with me while I make a terrible analogy.

Some Jews won’t travel to Germany. They won’t go to the place where the Nazi regime originated. Though they know that today’s Germans are NOT Nazis, and that Germans don’t espouse those principles, being in Germany would bring up too much raw, bitter emotion and be an uncomfortable, vulnerable experience.

Having a mosque near ground zero has the potential to bring on that same sense of vulnerability, insecurity, and anger in many people. And what’s the point of making so many people feel that way? It’s unnecessary.

Perhaps Sharif el-Gamal, the developer of the project, would make a worthwhile point by moving the project somewhere else. It would show much respect for those who are uncomfortable with having the mosque near ground zero, and prove that the people praying in this mosque are not trying to cause uproar—that these are a very different people simply looking to build a community center.

Or maybe, el-Gamal would be caving to right-wing objectives by moving the project, demonstrating how freedom of religion only goes so far.

And thus, this is my dilemma. Help.