There's an existing Mosque (an actual mosque, not a community center) about 4 blocks away already. It's been there for about 30 years. It was also damaged by falling debris during 9/11. I've heard arguments like 'Why do they need ANOTHER mosque so close?' like having a community center near a church would be some kind of crazy idea.
A better analogy would be the American Nazi Party holding a rally in the heavily-Jewish Skokie, IL. Many viewed it as "distasteful and disrespectful," but freedom of speech, religion, et al. are precious rights protected by our Constitution, and we take them very seriously (some more than others). And here is where the great divide between "westerners" and "radical extremists" takes shape. It's all about values. We value these rights. I think it takes considerable strength of character and conviction for a society to uphold and protect these rights for all its citizens, even in the face of unpopular political or religious sentiments. That's hardly weakness.
That would be a better analogy if they were actually a few blocks outside of Skokie, gathering where they always had for years.
It would be an even better analogy if instead of The American Nazi Party, it was just a bunch of Germans.
You Americans are guaranteed freedom of religion and property rights under the constitution. So, therefore the government has no say. Politicians shouldn't even be talking about this, and in the hypothetical event it is stopped I will definitely be enraged at the shitting-on of the Constitution. However, it's rather stupid to build a mosque-that-isn't-actually-a-mosque so close to the WTC. I have a feeling "Cordoba House" is going to have a lot of rocks thrown at it/hicks parading around with flags for a long time. Anyway, we have bigger fish to fry, such as the economy, AfNamistan, inflation, etc. Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
I would suggest building a Wendy's instead but then anorexic people would freak out. The Hooters was a bad idea because gay men would be upset. Maybe we could balance it by building a Catholic church across the street but that would frighten all the boys under twelve away, nothing they do will make everyone happy. The bottom line is despite your knee jerk reaction that putting the mosque at ground zero is insensitive, the religion did not bomb the WTC. Yes, we know all about the Jihad and the extremists but it would not be fair to punish an entire religion because of a few fanatics. That is of course if a mosque is truly required or needed in the area, and it's not some stupid political stunt. I hate what happened and I'm sure if I went to visit the memorial and walked past the mosque it would put a bad taste in my mouth, but that does not make me right.