Pro & Con Arguments: 'Is it appropriate to build a Muslim ...



Pro & Con Arguments: "Is it appropriate to build a Muslim community center (aka the 'Ground Zero Mosque') near the World Trade Center site?" | |

|PRO - It is appropriate to build a Muslim community center (aka the 'Ground Zero |CON - It is not appropriate to build a Muslim community center (aka the 'Ground |

|Mosque') near the World Trade Center site |Zero Mosque') near the World Trade Center site |

|The "Ground Zero Mosque" will be an asset to the city.  According to plans |The 9/11 attacks were committed by Muslim terrorists in the name of Islam. |

|released by the Cordoba Initiative - the group behind the project - what is |Building a Muslim mosque on the hallowed ground near the World Trade Center site |

|planned is a community center with a library, a gym, a swimming pool, |is an insult to the memory of those killed on Sep. 11, 2001. [6]  The World Trade|

|a basketball court, a 500-seat auditorium, a restaurant, a 9/11 memorial, child |Center site should remain a sacred burial ground and a war memorial free from the|

|care facilities, and a culinary school. [2] |hurtful and antagonistic presence of a nearby mosque.   |

|     |The "Ground Zero Mosque" would become a permanent lightning rod for anti-Muslim |

|The Muslim community center is a major economic investment that will pump over |feelings. [19]  According to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, "All the |

|$100 million in infrastructre into lower Manhattan and will create as many as 150|proposed Muslim community center near Ground Zero will do is create more |

|full-time and 500 part-time jobs in an area that desperately needs it. [5]  |division, more anger, and more hatred." [12]  That divisiveness is not good for |

|Contrary to what many believe, the ''Ground Zero Mosque'' is not a mosque.  A |anyone, especially Muslims.    |

|mosque is a Muslim holy place in which only worship can be conducted. [8] The |There should be no mosques near Ground Zero until there are churches or |

|community center is 16-stories high with a 2-story prayer space that is, |synagogues in Saudi Arabia, or until Christians or Jews are allowed to enter |

|according to its builders, "open to everyone." [2]   |Mecca.  Islamists that call for tolerance need to address their own practices |

|The United States was built upon tolerance and religious freedom, and a mosque at|before they criticize America's. [7] |

|Ground Zero would represent American values. [15]  We should not allow the 9/11 | |

|terrorists' message of intolerance to reign in our country.  |Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the spiritual leader of the proposed "Ground Zero |

|Muslims have the same right to build a house of worship in Lower Manhattan and to|Mosque," is a radical Islamist who has refused to call Hamas a terrorist |

|pray for the victims of 9/11 as any other group. [18]  Approximately 60 Muslims |organization and has laid blame on the US for the Sep. 11 attacks. [14]  In a |

|were murdered in the 9/11 attacks. [17] |July 2005 speech, Rauf has even stated that "the United States has more Muslim |

|    |blood on its hands than Al Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims.” |

|The Park51 project allows Muslims to remind Americans that the destruction that |[22]   In a Sep. 30, 2001 interview on 60 Minutes about the 9/11 attacks, he said|

|struck the Twin Towers does not represent Islam. [20] Al-Qaeda was responsible |that "the United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime” and that "Osama|

|for the 9/11 attacks, not Islam. [21]  As filmmaker Michael Moore posted on his |bin Laden was made in the USA.” [62] |

|blog, "Blaming a whole group for the actions of just one of that group is |The financers of the "Ground Zero Mosque" have ties to radical Islamic |

|anti-American. Timothy McVeigh was Catholic. Should Oklahoma City prohibit the |extremists.  According to an Aug. 23, 2010 Fox News report, Imam Feisal Abdul |

|building of a Catholic Church near the site of the former federal building that |Rauf has received funds from Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who has allegedly |

|McVeigh blew up?" [61] |funded radical Islamic Madrassas around the world. [9][10] 15 of the 19 jihadis |

|Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a moderate Muslim who has been preaching in New York |in the Twin Tower attacks were Saudis. [11] |

|for 27 years.  He intends to use Park51 as a place where moderate Muslim voices |Several prominent Muslims believe the "Ground Zero Mosque" should not be built, |

|"are amplified" to condemn terrorism and work for peaceful and harmonious |including Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, |

|relationships with New Yorkers. [23][24]  Rauf is an American citizen who says |and Stephen Schwartz, Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism.  |

|he "votes in elections, pays taxes, pledges allegiance to the flag, and is a |There are over 100 mosques in New York where Muslims can worship freely. [7]  The|

|Giants fan." [28]  |Muslim Canadian Congress stated that "We believe the [Park51] proposal has been |

|It is appropriate for a mosque to be built near Ground Zero because one |made in bad faith and, in Islamic parlance, is creating  'fitna,' meaning |

|existed on floor 17 of the South Tower of the World Trade Center and was |'mischief-making,' an act clearly forbidden in the Qur’an." [19] |

|destroyed in the 9/11 attacks. [13]  | |

|Several family members of 9/11 victims have publicly supported the Park51 |The idea of a Muslim mosque near Ground Zero where Muslims killed so many |

|project.  Frank Tatum, who lost his mother on 9/11, stated, "We do have religious|Americans is morally repugnant.  A Serbian Orthodox church near the killing |

|freedom.  I know the [9/11] wounds are still very open, mine included, but you |fields of Srebrenica where 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered would never be |

|have to look at the big picture. You can't practice these freedoms only when it |tolerated, and neither would a pro-Japanese monument near Pearl Harbor. [65] [66]|

|suits us.  You have to practice them all along." [27] |CNN, Rasmussen, and Quinnipiac polls show that 68%, 54%, and 71%, respectively, |

|Cancelling the plans to build the "Ground Zero Mosque" will signal to Islamic |of Americans feel that the "Ground Zero Mosque" should not be built at its |

|extremists that America is anti-Muslim, which may endanger Americans and put the |proposed location. [25][26][64] |

|country at risk of a future terrorist attack. [28] |Building the "Ground Zero Mosque" will endanger New Yorkers because anti-Muslim |

|According to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, if Park51 were moved "…the headline in the |extremists will target it for an attack. [8]  On Oct. 3, 2010, the New York City |

|Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America, this will strengthen the |Police Department confirmed it was investigating death threats against Imam Rauf |

|radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment…" [57] |and his wife, Daisy Khan. [56]  A Florida pastor threatened to burn 100 Korans on|

|We are fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect Muslims from tyranny.  We|9/11/10 if the Muslim community center were built at its proposed location, a |

|should also be protecting them from tyranny at home by standing up for their |provocative act which many believed would have led to violent retaliation from |

|rights, including freedom of religion. [8] |Muslim extremists. [63] |

|The name Cordoba House was chosen to represent Cordoba, Spain, a Middle Age city |The name Cordoba House proves that the 'Ground Zero Mosque' is intended to be a |

|where Muslims, Christians, and Jews co-existed peacefully during a famous period |victory monument for terrorists. [16]  According to former Speaker of the United |

|of cultural enrichment. [29]  On July 13, 2010, to satisfy critics, the project |States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, "The name 'Cordoba House' is a |

|was renamed Park51 to put emphasis on the community center aspect of the project |deliberately insulting term that refers to Cordoba, Spain - the capital of Muslim|

|rather than religion. [30] |conquerers who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by |

|A Muslim community center receiving funding from Arab sources overseas is not |transforming a church there into the world's third-largest mosque complex." [7] |

|problematic because Arab investment in the United States is nothing new.  Arab |45-51 Park Place, the proposed location of the "Ground Zero Mosque," sits well |

|countries held approximately $8 billion in foreign direct investment in the |within the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center site.  The current |

|United States in 2009. [58]  Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has been derided for |businesses in the neighborhood, even if unsavory, are irrelevant to this fact. |

|receiving funds from "radical" Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, but bin Talal is|Human remains were found within 350 feet of the proposed Muslim community center.|

|not a radical.  He has made several large investments in the United States, and |Jim Riches, a former New York City Deputy Fire Chief whose son, Jimmy, was killed|

|is reported to be the second largest shareholder of News Corp, the parent company|on 9/11, stated, "I just think it's very insensitive to say it's not hallowed |

|of Fox News. [59] |ground because of who's occupying the buildings.  The strip club didn't murder my|

| |son." [60]  |

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