GROUND ZERO TOLERANCE

Picture: Asterix611 - via Flikr

I knew pretty quickly where I stood on this issue. The somewhat spiteful debate surrounding the so-called ‘Ground Zero Mosque.’ First clincher? It’s not actually a Mosque. It involves plans for a community centre with a place of worship inside. Second point? It’s not at Ground Zero, but two blocks away. Here’s a handy map showing the distance, remember this is downtown Manhattan, you can fit a lot in.

But if a third strand were needed to suggest just who’s wrong here, I’d skim through the quotes gathered from anti-Mosque protesters this past Sunday. I feel their wise words may not have been picked over finely enough and want to re-print a few, collected from Reuters:

“America needs to man up right about now. We’re bowing to Muslims that want to kill us, that hate us.”

“I don’t believe that every Muslim is a terrorist, but I do know that every Muslim was on the planes that killed my brother was a Muslim.”

“When they the terrorists they come over here and they tear down the World Trade Center, 3,000 people they get killed by the Muslim people, don’t forget them.”

Couple together the fact they quite literally can’t string a sentence together, with the fact television pictures showed them waving a model cruise missile… with a US flag sticking out of it – and we know just about where on the scale we might find many of these people. Please don’t think patriot or concerned citizen, not even ‘tea party maverick.’ To those of us living in the UK, think BNP activist, hijacking pictures of Churchill and screaming about ‘our jobs’.

They insist two blocks is too close to this ‘hallowed ground’ – and want the building pushed back further. I’d like to beg the question, how far would be far enough. To the tip of Manhattan? Into the sea maybe? How about 2.9 miles and a short ferry ride south to Liberty Island? Here’s another quote to cast your eye over, printed on the base of the statue that stands there:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

One small but significant part of America’s fascinating history as a nation of immigrants, a nation committed to freedom of speech and freedom to worship too. I visited Ground Zero a couple of years ago. They requested that you don’t take photos and selling stuff was banned. But the New York Fire Department were teaching visiting school kids about the history of the place and at that time you could still stick tributes and messages to the fences around the building site.

One last quote comes from something I saw scribbled down there:

“The planes came and took my uncle away. We love you.”

That seems to me like a much stronger way to respect and preserve the memory of the people who lost their lives on 9/11. Better than borderline racism anyway.