Is it offensive to build a Mosque [near Ground Zero]? I suppose that depends on your vantage point. If you think that Islam in general was responsible for the 9/11 attacks then it probably is offensive, if you don't, then probably not. Of course if you believe that Muslims as a whole have responsibility for 9/11 then every Mosque in every place would be offensive (you need to be consistent).On the question of "Islam in general": Many people seem ready to make glib generalizations about those of other religions (including those of no religion, about people of any religion). Few Christians are so naive as to presume that the values, priorities, and politics of all Christians -- from the Pope in Rome, to Christian Animists in Africa, to Unitarian Universalists in eastern North America, to Midwestern Methodists, to snake-charming Pentecostals in the desert Southwest -- are the same. (Indeed, many Christians do not even agree with the leaders of their own denominations, much less with Christians of other stripes.) Yet many non-Muslims, Christians among them, happily paint with broad strokes another religion of equal size and geographic distribution.
There's a great line in the movie "Charlie Wilson's War": Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) retorts to his boss, upon learning that he was denied a promotion because his father was an immigrant:
For twenty four years people have been trying to kill me! People who know how. Now do you think that's because my dad was a Greek soda pop maker? Or do you think that's because I'm an American spy?We might ask a similar question in regards to those American Muslims serving their country in the armed forces and to those who lost their lives, alongside people of many other faiths, on the ground where some would now deny them the right to pray.
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