Perhaps it’s because Spain was hit with an al-Qaeda terrorist attack that killed 191 and wounded 1,800; it may be Spain’s long history with Islam, which goes back to the 8th century; it might even be simply because the ‘Cordoba House’ is the namesake of that Spanish city, in which Jews, Christians and Muslims coexisted peacefully for centuries. But whatever the reason, there has been a strong reaction in Spain to the controversy surrounding what has come to be called the ‘Ground Zero Mosque.’
Is it possible that Cordoba House, the Muslim community center being proposed for a site two blocks from Ground Zero, will be able to promote peaceful coexistence among religions? This editorial from Spain’s ABC newspaper offers a one-word answer: ‘impossible.’
The ABC editorial says in part:
Without prejudging the fine line that separates tolerance and the free exercise of religion, if built at Ground Zero, the mosque would be fraught with symbolism that will be a long way from defending the principles that its advocates claim to defend.
New York has many mosques, and that demonstrates that people there aren’t bothered by mosques in and of themselves, but by the decision to build one on the same site where a criminal attack was carried out by fanatics who saw themselves as defenders of Islam. The best way to show that Islam doesn’t defend this mass murder would be to build the mosque somewhere else.”
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US