World Trade Center Muslim center

Introduction
Pros
- Pro 1: The “Ground Zero Mosque” will be an asset to the city.
- Pro 2: The Muslim community center is a major economic investment that will pump over $100 million in infrastructure into lower Manhattan and will create as many as 150 full-time and 500 part-time jobs in an area that desperately needs it.
- Pro 3: Contrary to what many believe, the “Ground Zero Mosque” is not a mosque.
- Pro 4: The United States was built upon tolerance and religious freedom, and a mosque at Ground Zero would represent American values.
- Pro 5: Muslims have the same right to build a house of worship in Lower Manhattan and to pray for the victims of 9/11 as any other group.
- Pro 6: The Park51 project allows Muslims to remind Americans that the destruction that struck the Twin Towers does not represent Islam.
- Pro 7: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a moderate Muslim who has been preaching in New York for 27 years.
- Pro 8: It is appropriate for a mosque to be built near Ground Zero because one existed on floor 17 of the South Tower of the World Trade Center and was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.
- Pro 9: Several family members of 9/11 victims have publicly supported the Park51 project.
- Pro 10: Cancelling the plans to build the “Ground Zero Mosque” will signal to Islamic extremists that America is anti-Muslim, which may endanger Americans and put the country at risk of a future terrorist attack.
- Pro 11: We are fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect Muslims from tyranny.
- Pro 12: The name Cordoba House was chosen to represent Cordoba, Spain, a Middle Age city where Muslims, Christians, and Jews co-existed peacefully during a famous period of cultural enrichment.
- Pro 13: A Muslim community center receiving funding from Arab sources overseas is not problematic because Arab investment in the United States is nothing new.
Cons
- Con 1: The 9/11 attacks were committed by Muslim terrorists in the name of Islam.
- Con 2: The “Ground Zero Mosque” would become a permanent lightning rod for anti-Muslim feelings.
- Con 3: There should be no mosques near Ground Zero until there are churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia, or until Christians or Jews are allowed to enter Mecca.
- Con 4: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the spiritual leader of the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque,” is a radical Islamist who has refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization and has laid blame on the US for the Sep. 11 attacks.
- Con 5: The financers of the “Ground Zero Mosque” have ties to radical Islamic extremists.
- Con 6: Several prominent Muslims believe the “Ground Zero Mosque” should not be built, including Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, and Stephen Schwartz, Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism.
- Con 7: The idea of a Muslim mosque near Ground Zero where Muslims killed so many Americans is morally repugnant.
- Con 8: People do not support the building of a mosque near Ground Zero
- Con 9: Building the “Ground Zero Mosque” will endanger New Yorkers because anti-Muslim extremists will target it for an attack.
- Con 10: The name Cordoba House proves that the “Ground Zero Mosque” is intended to be a victory monument for terrorists.
- Con 11: 45-51 Park Place, the proposed location of the “Ground Zero Mosque,” sits well within the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center site.
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Sources

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Two vertical beams of blue light shine into the night sky from lower Manhattan, symbolizing the former World Trade Center towers, with the New York City skyline illuminated below.

World Trade Center towers

A uniformed arm rests a hand on a service cap beside a small American flag. Large text reads: remembering 9/11.

World Trade Center Muslim center: Media

Should a mosque be built near “Ground Zero”?

Videos

A uniformed arm rests a hand on a service cap beside a small American flag. Large text reads: remembering 9/11.

Sept. 11 Attacks

Remembering the 9/11 attacks, twenty years later.

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

Two vertical beams of blue light shine into the night sky from lower Manhattan, symbolizing the former World Trade Center towers, with the New York City skyline illuminated below.

World Trade Center

Tribute in Light, art installation near the site of the World Trade Center.

© Demerzel21/Dreamstime.com

World Trade Center towers

World Trade Center towers

The two WTC towers before the 9/11 attack.

AdstockRF

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