Ground Zero Mosque

Asked recently about the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, Governor Quinn responded that “there are special places on earth that should have a zone of solemnity around them,” including Lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center site. “I would strongly urge those who are thinking of putting a mosque within that zone to rethink their position,” he added. Our cities would die if we followed this approach.

I grew up in New York, and I’ve spent lots of time in Lower Manhattan both before and after 2001. In 1989 I toiled all summer in One Liberty Plaza, which was heavily damaged in the September 11th attacks. Back then the neighborhood around the World Trade Center was anything but solemn. Office buildings and landmarks shared the streets with cheap gift shops, fast food joints and knockoff electronics stores. Sidewalks teemed with bankers, hustlers, and everyone in between.

It’s the same today. You can look for yourself – Google’s Streetview feature shows that the streets surrounding Ground Zero have barely changed. There is no “zone of solemnity” anywhere to be seen. The Ground Zero site is bordered by un-solemn places like Burger King, DJ Hair Salon, and the Century 21 Department Store – “the #1 Discount Store in N.Y.C.” Further back are strip clubs like the Pussycat Lounge or, if that’s not your thing, churches serving every denomination, including the famous Trinity Church, as well as Buddhist temples, synagogues, and, yes, mosques.

Nestled within this lively, eclectic scene is the site of the proposed Park51 Islamic community center. It’s an older building that was most recently a Burlington Coat Factory. Stand on the sidewalk in front of the building and you would never know you were within a mile of Ground Zero, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, or any other New York landmark. Next door to Park51 is the Dakota Roadhouse, a bar with a 4am liquor license and the slogan “Where too much is never enough.” An Islamic center next to a cowboy bar – isn’t that the whole idea of this country in a nutshell?

None of this is meant to diminish the tragedy of September 11 in the slightest. But the best way to deal with tragedy, even a tragedy as awful as terrorists crashing hijacked jet planes full of innocent people into America’s biggest skyscrapers, is to never let it win. The Constitution unequivocally protects freedom of religion in this country; government simply has no business favoring some religions over others. If the government thinks it’s insensitive to build an Islamic center anywhere within a few blocks of Ground Zero, then it’s insensitive to keep Trinity Church there, also.

When we build our cities we should follow that common sense approach. No good can come from excluding entire groups from vaguely-defined “zones of solemnity” we construct around sites of urban tragedy, especially in dense, vibrant places like Lower Manhattan. There is no zone of solemnity in Chicago memorializing the Great Fire of 1871, for example, or the terrible 1915 Eastland disaster that killed over 800 innocent people. The Loop is the thriving district it is today precisely because Chicago didn’t stop on those days.

Think of it this way: the Bank of Japan’s New York headquarters are across the street from One Liberty Place. The Deutsche Bank Building, heavily damaged in the attacks, was next to the Twin Towers. Of course, nobody bats an eyelash that our World War II enemies had their banks on sites straddling Ground Zero. We’re bigger than that.