Hmmm.
In a poll of New York City residents for the New York Times, published on 27 August, 72% of those interviewed told pollsters people have the right to build a house of worship near Ground Zero.
No surprise there, that's what religious freedom means.
But when asked, "Do people have the right to build a mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero?" the number dropped to 62% saying OK.
Finally, when asked should the Park 51 mosque and community centre actually be built at the proposed site, 67% said No.
Full BBC Editorial
Does that seem a little... off to anyone? It's almost like people where assuming it would be a church when asked the first question. Which means they're tolerant of their own religion and support it, but not of others, or, specifically, Islam?
(Speaking of which, I get so annoyed when I'm reading a book that has anything to do with the Middle East and every time, every author feels they have to go through and explain Islam, like the Five Pillars of Islam, and how they actually respect Jesus as a prophet and think he was totally awesome... just not the son of god because that's blasphemy. Or about the *most basic* of things in regards to a religion that I think... has almost as many followers world wide as Christianity. How do people not already know these things? And then I realize one of our biggest problems when it comes to the Middle East and Africa. People don't know. This is bad. This needs to change. And then people need to be able to assume that that's what these people know, so we can move onto the bigger issues.)