Opinion: Of Mosques and Mother’s Day

By Fran Becker

The sense of loss, grief, and outrage on 9/11, and in the years that followed, gives me little reason to expect or demand of Americans to separate Ground Zero from those who turned it into Ground Zero. This is terribly unfair to hundreds of thousands of decent American Muslims who love America, abhor terrorism, and wish their religious freedoms were as defined and secured as any other United States citizen. But it’s just as unfair for supporters of the Ground Zero mosque to deny or invalidate the emotions of those still grieving this horrible event.

Right or wrong, millions of Americans associate the historical facts of 9/11 with Islam. Continued Islamic terror attacks and threats to our nation and allies, and the absence of an organized Muslim movement to reject and denounce Islamic terror only reinforce this association. While activists shout about stereotypes and religious discrimination, regular Americans simply open their eyes and call things as they see them.

I do not support building a mosque two blocks, or anywhere close to Ground Zero. There are thousands of mosques in the United States, and many hundreds in New York, so we know that opponents of the Ground Zero mosque are not trying to limit the religious freedom of Muslims. They’re disgusted at how insensitive the mosque’s planners are to the open wounds caused by 9/11. Such behavior is inexcusable, and worthy of opposition.

Consider that the Confederate Flag is all but banned in the South because of what it represents to African Americans. Sincere people understand that even though the first amendment protects their right to fly this flag, because it is insensitive to do so, they will choose to fly it elsewhere or not at all.

Many schools downplay Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day because it’s such a painful day for children without a mother or father. Is it fair to deny this to the rest of the children? Well, it’s not about being fair. It’s about learning to be sensitive to the feelings of others.

When a group that claims to promote tolerance is so grossly insensitive to the legitimate emotional needs of others, I have to wonder about their sincerity. Especially when they seem to be downplaying the religious aspects of the complex, and have the gall to compare it to Jewish community centers in Manhattan.

Now they’ve changed the name of the mosque from the vaguely Middle Eastern sounding “Cordoba House” to the purposely-vague “Park51.” It makes me wonder: is their goal really to promote peace, understanding, and tolerance, or to promote a goal that should be intolerable to even the most tolerant Americans.