A BOILING ANGER – AT 7:21 P.M. ET:  A number of readers have written to us about this.  As many of you may know, there is a proposal in New York for a 13-story mosque to be built right near Ground Zero, scene of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Inevitably, the proposal has become extremely controversial.  The mosque has an odd pedigree, and even reporters can't figure out exactly who is behind it.  The usual suspects have come out in favor of it, apparently seeing it as some kind of "healing" thing.  The local community board voted for it enthusiastically.  (Ground Zero is located in the midst of one of the most liberal districts in America.  It's represented in Congress by Jerrold Nadler, who often makes Lenin look like a Republican.)

A backlash is building, especially among 9-11 families and members of New York's protective services, fire and police.  My friend Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi sends this picture:

This is a subject that obviously must be approached with some care.  On the one hand, we don't want to reject a positive, moderate, Islamic approach.  On the other hand, we must respect the feelings of victims, something liberals don't do with any great ability.  (Look at their attitude toward victims of violent crime.)

My own sense is that those who want to build the mosque have provided too little information about sponsorship.  There are reports from solid sources that some of the key figures have a history of supporting terrorism, or at least the objectives of terrorism.

It may be unfair at times, but we must hold the Islamic community to a demanding standard.  Building a mosque at Ground Zero right now is like building a Japanese Shinto shrine at Pearl Harbor in 1950.  In time, maybe.  But the mosque's sponsorship must be pristine, and the mosque must show a genuine rejection of terrorism in all its forms.

There's a time for religious groups to remain silence, or even back off.  There is also a time for reflection.  We think here that the reflection should precede the construction, or even replace it entirely.

July 14, 2010