Build the Mosque on Park Place

President Obama has finally chimed in on the issue of building a mosque and community center in lower Manhattan. He's for it, as if urban planning in New York City were the business of anyone who doesn't pay taxes in the five boroughs. However, those tea-party proto-fascists who whine most about states' rights and interference from Washington seem quite happy to opine from Hogs' Breath, Mississippi, Beaver Stench, Idaho or some other equally cultured burg on what New Yorker's should do with a derelict building on Park Place. From Mr. Obama (who at least is on the right side of the issue is supporting freedom of religion) on down, this journal has a single suggestion -- they ought to mind their own business.

Part of the problem has been the labeling of the issue as The Mosque at the World Trade Center. That is guaranteed to whip up emotions among those who lost family members and give succor to those who choose to hate 1.5 billion Muslims because 19 were wankers 9 years ago. However, it is a lie. The Mosque will not be at the World Trade Center. It will be where Burlington Coat Factory used to have a retail site, at 45-47 Park Place. One may as well talk about New York Dolls on Murray Street as being the Topless Bar at the World Trade Center -- it's only a block farther up.

Some not-quite-local politicians like Long Island's Republican Congressman Peter King have made this mis-framed issue a rallying cry. Mr. King argues that there are security issues involved with the site. Given that he doesn't represent New York City but rather various bedroom communities and other suburban areas, one wonders what his interest is. He's made quite an issue out of Homeland Security in recent years. Then, one remembers that he was an ardent supporter of the Irish Republican Army during one of its more murderous phases. Mr. King, a terrorist sympathizer, is trying to deflect attention from his own sins. The man should be in jail rather than in Congress.

Of course, there is precedent for the city to decide the issue on its own. After Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 people by truck bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the people of that metropolis got to put things back the way they wanted them. There is a memorial, and no one would ever suggest that the US Army not be allowed to put a recruiting center near it -- Mr. McVeigh was, after all, a former soldier when he killed those people. And not one New Yorker protested what the people of Oklahoma City decided. Reciprocity would be nice.

Now frankly, this journal would be just as happy if no mosques, churches, temples or other houses of worship were ever built anywhere. However, if the flock feels the need to be fleeced once a week, it can just as easily be done by an imam on Friday as by a rabbi on Saturday or a priest on Sunday. Putting a mosque two blocks uptown and around the corner from the World Trade Center site is hardly a "slap in the face" to the families of those who lost loved ones. The city has rightfully given them the right of veto over plans for the site itself, but they don't get to decide what gets built or not beyond that. Just how far to they think their rights extend? Park Place? 34th Street? Central Park? Harlem? Yankee Stadium?

And for those who didn't lose anyone, and who don't pay income tax to the City of New York, is there not something in one's own town one might address more intelligently and usefully?

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

Kensington Review Home