Toby Harnden: The battle over the mosque at Ground Zero
[Toby Harnden is the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC.]
August tends to be an inauspicious month for elevated debate in American politics. Last year, everyone was bickering about whether health-care reform would usher in "death panels" that could dispatch Granny to her grave.
Now, as Europe holidays, the United States is in a frenzy about the building of a mosque at Ground Zero, principal site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Polls indicate that two-thirds of the country opposes the establishment of a Muslim holy site at the spot where Islamists killed 2,752 people that day in 2001.
Even before President Barack Obama waded into the controversy at the weekend, the issue had degenerated into a parody of one of those cable talk shows where two polemicists on either side of an issue shout at each other for 15 minutes, reinforcing lots of prejudices but changing no minds.
What is being proposed, in fact, is not a mosque but an Islamic community centre. It is, moreover, not at Ground Zero but two blocks away. That would put it a little under a quarter of a mile from Ground Zero itself. There is, incidentally, already a mosque just a third of a mile away.
Opponents of the Cordoba House cultural centre like to conjure up the image of minarets rising from the ashes of the World Trade Center's twin towers. But, in reality, the proposal is for a 15-storey building with a mosque inside it, along with an auditorium, swimming pool and other facilities. Among its neighbours will be the Pussycat Lounge strip joint, Thunder Lingerie (featuring a peep show) and numerous pizza parlours, tanning salons, banks and bars.
That said, the sanctimony of many supporters of the project has been breathtaking. New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has been among the most prominent figures to suggest that the protesters are guilty of bigotry and religious intolerance. Certainly, there are prejudiced voices opposing the plan, which was given the go-ahead by a nine-to-zero vote of New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission a fortnight ago. Hamas has, predictably, spoken out in favour. Does that mean all those who support the scheme favour suicide bombing?..
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
August tends to be an inauspicious month for elevated debate in American politics. Last year, everyone was bickering about whether health-care reform would usher in "death panels" that could dispatch Granny to her grave.
Now, as Europe holidays, the United States is in a frenzy about the building of a mosque at Ground Zero, principal site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Polls indicate that two-thirds of the country opposes the establishment of a Muslim holy site at the spot where Islamists killed 2,752 people that day in 2001.
Even before President Barack Obama waded into the controversy at the weekend, the issue had degenerated into a parody of one of those cable talk shows where two polemicists on either side of an issue shout at each other for 15 minutes, reinforcing lots of prejudices but changing no minds.
What is being proposed, in fact, is not a mosque but an Islamic community centre. It is, moreover, not at Ground Zero but two blocks away. That would put it a little under a quarter of a mile from Ground Zero itself. There is, incidentally, already a mosque just a third of a mile away.
Opponents of the Cordoba House cultural centre like to conjure up the image of minarets rising from the ashes of the World Trade Center's twin towers. But, in reality, the proposal is for a 15-storey building with a mosque inside it, along with an auditorium, swimming pool and other facilities. Among its neighbours will be the Pussycat Lounge strip joint, Thunder Lingerie (featuring a peep show) and numerous pizza parlours, tanning salons, banks and bars.
That said, the sanctimony of many supporters of the project has been breathtaking. New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has been among the most prominent figures to suggest that the protesters are guilty of bigotry and religious intolerance. Certainly, there are prejudiced voices opposing the plan, which was given the go-ahead by a nine-to-zero vote of New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission a fortnight ago. Hamas has, predictably, spoken out in favour. Does that mean all those who support the scheme favour suicide bombing?..