Right: a protester in New York illustrates the bitterness of the debate around the proposed "Ground Zero Mosque", despite the fact that the building will not be at the site of the World Trade Centre, nor, as many point out, will it actually be a mosque.
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Arguments against a Muslim community and prayercentre being built near the site of the World Trade Centre
1. Building a Muslim community centre and mosque would be offensive to the survivors and the family and friends of those killed on September 11
It has been claimed that a majority of those who lost family and friends when the Twin Towers were destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001, are opposed to the building of a Muslim community centre two blocks from where the Twin Towers stood.
The argument put is that feelings are simply too painful for it to be appropriate for an Islamic symbol to be placed so near the site of the attack.
Posting on Twitter, the former Alaskan governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, stated, 'Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand. Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in the interest of healing.'
In another post expressing similar views, Ms Palin stated, 'Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.'
There have been vigorous protests from among 9/11 survivors and the families and friends of those who were killed. Some relatives opposing the Muslim community centre have carried signs bearing the faces of 9/11 victims. One of the protestors stated, 'This is an insult. This is demeaning. This is humiliating that you would build a shrine to the very ideology that inspired the attacks on 9/11.'
Peter King, a Republican congressman in New York, has also stated, 'It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero.'
A similar view has been put by Mrs Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed at the World Trade Centre. In her view the building of a mosque would be a 'gross lack of sensitivity to the 9/11 families and to the people who were lost.'
The American Anti-Defamation League has stated, 'There are understandably strong passions and keen sensitivities surrounding the World Trade Centre site. We are ever mindful of the tragedy which befell our nation there...
It is not a question of rights but a question of what is right. In our judgment building an Islamic Centre in the shadow of the World Trade Centre will cause some victims more pain unnecessarily -and that is not right.'
2. Building a Muslim community centre and mosque could be interpreted as tasteless triumphalism
There are those who fear that the building of a Muslim community centre at this location will be seen as a victory gesture in the conflict between radical Islam and the western world.
Dan Senor, a founding partner of Rosemont Capital LLC, and Rosemont Solebury Capital Management and co-author of the book Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, stated in The Wall Street Journal on August 3, 2010, '[T]he fact remains that in the minds of many who are swayed by the most radical interpretations of Islam, the Cordoba House will not be seen as a centre for peace and reconciliation. It will rather be celebrated as a Muslim monument erected on the site of a great Muslim "military" victory-a milestone on the path to the further spread of Islam throughout the world.' Every time
A similar view has been put by William McGurn, in another opinion piece also published in The Wall Street Journal on August 3, 2010. McGurn stated, 'Even those who favor this new Islamic Centre surely can appreciate why some American feelings are rubbed raw by the idea of a mosque at a place where Islamic terrorists killed more than 2,700 innocent people.'
This view of mosque-building as 'triumphalism' can be seen on the conservative Internet site, 'Looking at the Left'. On this site the following view was put, 'Muslim followers of Shariah law have long built mosques on the most cherished and sacred sites of the peoples they have conquered - on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, at Constantinople's St. Sophia Basilica (now Istanbul), and in Cordoba, Spain, the capital of the occupying Moors' Islamic kingdom. Many Hindu and Buddhist temples also were destroyed in Asia and now lay (sic) underneath prominent mosques.' The 'Looking at the Left' Internet site concludes, 'Islamic triumphalism has a very long and brutal history.'
3. Some of the funding for the Muslim community centre and mosque may come from Muslim extremists
It has been suggested that the building of the Muslim community centre may be funded by Muslim extremists.
It has been claimed that some of the funding for the $10 million Muslim community centre has been supplied by Muslim radicals who have also sponsored terrorist acts.
In an opinion piece written by Abigail Esman and published in Forbes Magazine on July 7, 2010, Ms Esman stated, 'The majority of U.S. mosques are sponsored by Saudi Arabia, where extreme Wahabbist Islam reigns supreme. Wahabbist Islam is what stands behind the Salafist philosophies that drive people like Mohammed Bouyeri, murderer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, to commit their jihadist acts. It is preached in U.S. prisons by Saudi-sponsored imams, extolled in books that sell through U.S. mosques run by Saudi-sponsored imams, and taught in the Saudi-sponsored Islamic schools of Europe.'
Esman has suggested that if the mosque is substantially funded by Islamic extremists than this could undermine the moderate, peace-promoting intentions of those who are seeking to build the community centre.
Abigail Esman has written, 'If the $100 million--or any major part of it--is to come from Saudi Arabia, Imam Rauf's good intentions will not likely matter very much.'
Published on Irish Central, Brendan Keane stated his view that, 'Islam is a religion with militant sects, heavily funded by oil money. That may sound like a slander on Islam, but it is really a crisis that faces all of us.
Muslims should not rally around a project built in their name, when they don't know about the project's money or the priorities of the financiers.'
4. Building a Muslim community centre and mosque near the site of the World Trade Centre could cause a backlash against Muslim Americans
It has been suggested that building a Muslim community centre near the site of the World Trade Centre could provoke violence against Muslims living in New York and in other areas of the United States.
Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has stated, 'What we're seeing is a tremendous wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric in our society, which has resulted in a number of hate incidents targeting mosques and Muslims around the country.'
Relatedly, Mark Potok, an analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Centre, has stated, 'Anecdotally, there is very little question we are seeing a real backlash in terms of anti-Muslim hate crimes and anti-Muslim speech in general.'
In New York, a Muslim cab driver was stabbed by a man who allegedly joked about Ramadan before striking, and in Seattle, Washington, a Sikh convenience store clerk was assaulted by a man who yelled, 'You're Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country.'
There seems to have been a spate of vandalism and harassment directed at mosques: construction equipment was set alight at a mosque site in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; a graffitied plastic pig was thrown into a mosque in Madera, California. and teenagers shot outside a mosque in upstate New York during Ramadan prayers.
A number of commentators have suggested that the proposal to build a Muslim community centre in the vicinity of the World Trade Centre has precipitated anti-Muslim feeling. In an opinion piece written by Abigail Esman and published in Forbes Magazine on July 7, 2010, Ms Esman stated, 'There is, too, a certain danger: With emotions so high, it is hard to overlook the risk that both the mosque and, indeed, the worshipers could face retaliation.'
5. It would be more appropriate to build a Muslim community centre and mosque elsewhere
Some critics of the proposal to build a Muslim community centre and mosque near the site of the World Trade Centre have argued that the Muslim centre should be built elsewhere. These opponents of the mosque claim they are not denying Muslim worshippers the right to observe their religion, rather they are urging that this right be practised at another location.
A survey undertaken in August, 2010, found that New Yorkers agreed by a 54 to 40 per cent margin that while Muslims have the right to build a mosque wherever they wished, 53 to 39 per cent believed that 'because of the sensitivities of 9/11 relatives, Muslims should not be allowed to build the mosque near Ground Zero.'
The same view has been expressed by the Democrat Senator for Nevada, Harry Reid. A spokesperson for Senator Read stated, '"The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Sen. Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else.'
Republican Congressman First District Congressman John Sullivan has also stated his belief that the Islamic community centre and mosque planned for a site near the former World Trade Centre in New York City should be built elsewhere.
Congress Sullivan has argued, 'I think it is extremely insensitive and should be moved. I think that doing it right there is a mistake, and they should have the sensitivity to be able to move it on their own somewhere else.'