A monument to criminals

It would be nice to hear more voices acknowledging that the issue regarding the mosque in New York City is about the wisdom of the decision to build at that location — not the First Amendment or the rights of private property. Provocation is incompatible with reconciliation. From a column yesterday in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, director-general of Al-Arabiya TV  "The Majority of Muslims Do Not Want or Need a Mosque Near Ground Zero."

.... I can't imagine that Muslims [actually] want a mosque at this particular location, because it will become an arena for the promoters of hatred, and a monument to those who committed the crime. Moreover, there are no practicing Muslims in the area who need a place to worship, because it is a commercial district. Is there anyone who is [really] eager [to build] this mosque?...

...[T]he idea of a mosque right next to a site of destruction is not at all an intelligent one. The last thing Muslims want today is to build a religious center that provokes others, or a symbolic mosque that people will visit as a [kind of] museum next to a cemetery.

What the citizens of the U.S. fail to understand is that the battle against the 9/11 terrorists is not their battle. It is a Muslim battle – one whose flames are still raging in more than 20 Muslim countries... I do not think that the majority of Muslims want to build a monument or a place of worship that tomorrow may become a source of pride for the terrorists and their Muslim followers, nor do they want a mosque that will become a shrine for the haters of Islam....

Al-Arabiya Director: The Majority of Muslims Do Not Want or Need a Mosque Near Ground Zero