Commentary – Another Perspective on the Mosque Near Ground Zero

I read with interest Hayden Hollingsworth’s “Prejudice at the Pivot Point (9/17/10 – 9/23/10), and will offer another perspective on the reaction of many New Yorkers to the prospect of a mosque in that particular location. The lack of forgiveness on the part of  many Americans for the attack on 9-11 is clear. But the question should be – why is this so? Americans are a forgiving people. We point with pride to the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral in London by Germans after World War II, and we welcome former German POWs who were imprisoned here to visit and to live in our country.

In Budapest at a Christian conference in 2007, a Korean Professor of Religion at Princeton apologized to me profusely for the shootings by the Korean student that had taken place at Virginia Tech, not far from where I lived. The professor’s sorrow and pain were evident. There were also apologies from the Republic of Korea and the young man’s family. To my knowledge there have been no incidents of Americans turning on people of Korean descent.

So why has reconciliation with Muslims become less likely after nine years? Where is the remorse for what was done in the name of their God? Unfortunately, we cannot apologize for them any more than we have been doing for the past nine years.

We have a real problem here as attempts to kill Americans in the name of Allah continue and Moslems intend to “build bridges” (the mosque) in spite of the furor it is causing. Why would they do that? I don’t think we can condemn New Yorkers ( NEW YORKERS!?) for being bigots and racists. Admonitions against bigotry coming from New York City leaders are not working, except possibly in the case of a pastor in a small rural church who threatened to burn copies of the Koran, but did not.

Common sense tells us we have a huge problem.

-Gail T. Lambert

Roanoke