Cordoba House "Mosque"
NEW YORK - For the first time in nine years, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks became a day of protest, as a circus-like clash of demonstrations - ostensibly over the Cordoba House mosque - filled the streets of lower Manhattan on Saturday for several hours following the somber reading of the litany of the lost. Read more...
Listening to the news, my understanding is that Cordoba House is a HUGE mosque being built ON Ground Zero. And I started to get angry. I would get angry if a Christian church was built there or a Jewish Temple. If anything religious is built on the site, it should be a prayer center where all religions can come and pray. There would be areas for Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. Call it a one-stop-shop for all religions. That would be a beautiful thing.
But a little personal research brings this whole Cordoba House issue to a different light.
First off, it is not ON Ground Zero; it's a few blocks away. There are countless churches of various Christian denominations within a 2 block radius of Ground Zero. There's a Jewish temple about 3 blocks from the site. The closest mosque to the site currently is about 16 blocks away. So, what's the big deal of a mosque being built in Lower Manhattan?
Second, it's not a mosque; it's a community center that has an Islamic prayer room inside. Saint Mary's Medical Center isn't considered a church just because it has a chapel inside, so why is everyone calling Cordoba House a mosque?
Ground Zero is a place where 3,000 innocently people died because a small group of radicals hated the image of a country. We should be pouring more love into that place. There is one common denominator among all religions. They all say that love conquers all.
Listening to the news, my understanding is that Cordoba House is a HUGE mosque being built ON Ground Zero. And I started to get angry. I would get angry if a Christian church was built there or a Jewish Temple. If anything religious is built on the site, it should be a prayer center where all religions can come and pray. There would be areas for Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. Call it a one-stop-shop for all religions. That would be a beautiful thing.
But a little personal research brings this whole Cordoba House issue to a different light.
First off, it is not ON Ground Zero; it's a few blocks away. There are countless churches of various Christian denominations within a 2 block radius of Ground Zero. There's a Jewish temple about 3 blocks from the site. The closest mosque to the site currently is about 16 blocks away. So, what's the big deal of a mosque being built in Lower Manhattan?
Second, it's not a mosque; it's a community center that has an Islamic prayer room inside. Saint Mary's Medical Center isn't considered a church just because it has a chapel inside, so why is everyone calling Cordoba House a mosque?
Ground Zero is a place where 3,000 innocently people died because a small group of radicals hated the image of a country. We should be pouring more love into that place. There is one common denominator among all religions. They all say that love conquers all.