Geeogree summed up what I said nicely. It's just disrespectful to build a religious place of worship that is muslim in nature that close to ground zero. They just need to build it else where is all.

If its really funded by terrorists, then that is even worse

bigNATE : When you say that the president is for it, it is that he has no way to call it illegal, so he has no choice but to let it happen if it is on the right side of the law...

Also, since it is 2 blocks away it isn't nearly as bad as if they wanted to build it on top of ground zero../

septembern : Two blocks doesn't make that much of a difference. It's still tactless and, quite frankly, rude to put it there. geeogree has summed up my thoughts pretty nicely as well.

the repercussions of the september 11th attacks are still being felt today by many people of different races and religions, but to even consider placing a mosque so close to ground zero is at best ill advised and at worst a deliberate inflammatory act.
Having said that, it does need to be acknowledged that most muslims are peaceful law abiding people and that just like any other group of people they contain a small element of extremists.

Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is about this. It seems that America keeps forgetting that the group of people that we call "Al Quaeda" and the group of people that we call "Muslims" are two different kinds of people. I've had the pleasure of meeting several muslims in real life and none of them are the gun-toting, C4-chucking, anti-American people we've all come to know and hate. What makes me sad is that the muslims are really a peace-loving people and they don't wish for anything but the best for America, but Al-Quaeda has given them such a bad name that they are persecuted and considered enemies-of-the-state everywhere in America.

I'm not going to point fingers here but one person even compared a mosque to an actual terrorist base in this thread. That's like saying all Christian churches should be used as armories for the US Armed Forces.

TL,DR: Why is this a problem?

Long story short is that even in the Hadith, the Qur'an teaches enmity towards the Jews. In the Old Testament of the Christian Bible the Israelites had many enemies, same difference.

The New Testament however explains that the requirements of the Old were nailed to the cross of Christ; and that Jesus taught that "it was said 'Love your neighbor, but hate your enemy,' but I say to you love your enemy."

Obviously, the Nazis who claimed Christianity as their agenda were deceived in that they didn't know the reality of Jesus' teachings. All I'm saying is that a doctrine or faith that can be interpreted towards hatred, whether it be Christianity or Islam, is not predominantly accepted.

If a group of supposed Christians were to go and crash a plane into something in Australia, then other peaceful-Christians wanted to build a Church near the site of the incident, people would think they were nuts. It's just a courtesy to the people, is all.

The money thats going to be funding this mosque is coming from one of the biggest shareholders of "Fox Newscorp" besides the Murdoch family. Al Walid bin Talal is a Saudi prince that owns 7% of Fox Newscorp's shares, nearly a 2.3 billion dollar stake. Its funny they forgot to mention Al Walid bin Talal on fox news. Probably because he owns them.

And I got most of this from Jon Stewart's "The daily show". A show that is supposed to be a satire has more truth then "real" news corporations.
You can check it out and then check the facts yourself
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-august-23-2010-rod-blagojevich
Its all in the first 10 minutes.

Thats nice Fox news is funding it in some fashion but I think we should not get carried away and point blame on Fox completely. Tax payers pay for a lot more sinister stuff its just never talked about.

Viacom owns BET/Comedy Central so that is just as bad as funding a mosque in KKK pov. They can sling crap at one another point is they are all the same agenda driven nuts. They are the media they are the ones in control of how you think. Glad I don't watch any of them

I know it's not exactly the same thing.... because Mecca is a religious site.... but I still think the sign does show one thing.... Muslims can build places of worship in America, but Christians can't build theirs in Saudi Arabia....

geeogree : We shouldn't adopt their logic, thats why our country is better then theirs.

I know.... it's more just the recognition of the double standard that exists in America. If you are a minority then you can s*** on anyone else and get away with it.

Kind of, but not really. You might have people that have your back for odd reasons, but in the end your still a minority.

but the government and judges and what not will stick up for you.... that's the way the system works now. If you are a minority then any action against you is prejudiced somehow and you can get away with so much crap.

Some will. So I have a question. If you could chose, would pick to be a minority then since they have it made? I'm half white and half mexican and if you asked me I would just say screw make me full white. Because I have seen both sides and being on the minority side the benefits aren't so great.

Glancing over this thread, it seems the biggest problem is people don't fully understand the situation. Here is a quick summary.

First, that the site has already been a place for Muslim worship since well before 9/11. In fact, that entire area including Ground Zero is an area often called Little Syria due to the high Muslim population. Yes, that was an old title, but it is still relevant in the high number of Muslims in the area.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/nyregion/25quarter.html

Second, this is not a mosque. It is a community centre with a number of facilities including a mosque (which can be seen here: http://www.park51.org/facilities.htm).

Third, while New York as a whole does not support the project, residents of Manhattan, where the centre will be built are in favour of it. Furthermore, the city council heard the proposal and voted 15-0 in favor of the centre being built. And even the families of some 9/11 victims support this measure. Certainly whether or not this is a "slap in the face" is a matter of opinion.

http://www.huliq.com/3257/americas-stance-new-york-mosque-step-backward
http://dnainfo.com/20100701/manhattan/manhattanites-support-mosque-near-ground-zero-poll-finds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park51#9.2F11_families_2

And comparing this to some sort of KKK memorial is rather silly, unless you mean to compare all of Islam with the Ku Klux Klan.

Traduweise : I agree with everything you said.

This is just like what happened with the Japanese Americans and the internment camps. There is no reason why this should not be built. If anything, this would be a sign of good will and that we've developed past our old way of thinking. Instead, we just say "A few Muslims who do not represent the majority of the Muslim people as a whole will sway us into not letting them create a place for them in the country that allows everyone to freely act and express themselves." This is prejudice, plain and simple. I don't understand what is the worst that could happen if they have this center.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJQ4bwGPRuk

This video pretty much sums up my feeling over this.

I don't get how that guy comes to the conclusion that 9/11 is a victory for all muslims. Or did I misinterpret something?

I don't remember him saying that at all.... it would have been a victory for the extremist muslims who are likely the same people who want to build this mosque near ground zero.

Building a mosque is one thing. Building one near a site that triggers extremely strong emotions in many people is just disrespectful. They wouldn't want a church, temple, or any other non-Muslim religious building near something they're sensitive to so why should there be something that has a mosque in it near a place we're sensitive to?