The Niles Star

Kline: Don’t build mosque near Ground Zero

Building a mosque near Ground Zero would be like building a museum dedicated to the history of the trench coat in Columbine, Colo.

There’s nothing technically wrong with it, but everyone with common sense not blinded by political correctness understands that the fact that it feels wrong should be enough to simply not do it.

I understand that the radicals who perpetrated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, do not represent the Muslim religion any more than the nut jobs who shot up their school in Colorado represent the long-haired teenager in a trench coat sitting across from me at Starbucks.

That, however, does not mean that we should ignore that it was, in fact, radical Muslims who caused the deaths of thousands on that day and building a mosque in the shadow of where the Twin Towers once stood would be a painful reminder.

Americans need to know that not all Muslims are terrorists, any more than all Germans are Nazis.

We must work to have our citizens realize that a turban does not equal a terrorist and most Muslims are peace-loving people who simply want to live their lives.

That does not mean, however, that we should ignore the fact that this particular American tragedy was perpetrated by misguided radical Muslims.

If 9/11’s villains were radical Christians, extremist Jews or a misguided hockey team it would be equally appropriate to not want to build a church, a temple or an ice rink near the scene of the crime.

Political correctness as practiced by President Barack Obama dictates that we should ignore the hurt that building a mosque near ground zero would create.

It’s simply impossible to pretend that with all the places a mosque could be put in Manhattan, building one in the shadow of ground zero would be done for anything other than symbolism.

Admittedly, some of the symbolism would be positive — Muslims offering a sign of peace to help fix what their deranged brethren destroyed.

That, unfortunately, won’t be the only symbolism evoked by the presence of the mosque, though, as made painfully obvious when the head of Islamic terrorist organization Hamas spoke in favor of the project this week.

In general, any project endorsed by Hamas should be met with extreme skepticism by any rational person.

The terrorist seal of approval should raise a major warning flag that even if the builders of the mosque have positive intentions, their remain those who will pervert their actions for evil.

Nobody denies that Muslims have the same rights as any other religion to build their houses of worship wherever they want.

Rights and right, however, are not always the same and just because you can do something does not mean that you should do it.

Daniel B. Kline’s work appears in over 100 papers weekly.

He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com or befriend him at facebook.com/dankline.

Follow him on Twitter, @worstideas.