Would you allow a mosque to be built in your neighborhood? How about next door to your house? What if it came with a school as well, a religious school for the instruction of young children, or maybe for adults, a madrassa, which just means “school” in Arabic?

Two blocks down from my house is a church, Resurrection Catholic Church to be precise. Just this past year they installed church bells of some sort. I don’t know whether they are electronic or real. But at least three times a day the bells ring out a hymn—two verses worth—for at least two-five minutes depending on the length of the hymn. The music comes through loud and clear to my house, even inside with the windows closed, even though we are upwind of the church. I wonder what the downwind neighbors think?

I wonder if they had to get a permit or check with the neighbors? I wonder what the reaction would have been if, instead of Christian hymns three times a day, it was a mosque with a call to prayer five times a day? Would there be complaints about the call to prayer--it is too loud, it is too frequent. Why do Muslims feel like everybody wants to listen to their religious stuff?  But then again, why do we Christians think everyone wants to listen to our religious stuff?

How would you feel about a mosque in your neighborhood?

In New York City the Muslim community wants to build a mosque in an old Burlington Coat Factory building which is two blocks from Ground Zero, the site of the 9-11 bombings. Within those two blocks are several churches. I mean one of the bordering streets to the World Trade Center site is Church Street, and the immediate block includes St Paul’s Chapel which is across the street, followed by St. Peter’s half a block up.

I ask you, if a church had wanted to build on the piece of property currently slated for development of the mosque would there have been a problem? What if it was a synagogue? Or a Hindu temple? Any problems with those? What about a brothel or a halfway house or a bar or just the current shuttered, open for squatters, drug dealers and more that it is now?

Or is it just a mosque that is deemed unsuitable?

And why is that?

Hysterical speech in the media has talked about how we cannot let “those people” build next to the site. It is not right. It is appalling.

Why is that?

The site of Ground Zero has been called “sacred ground” by some and thus not fitting for a mosque to be built. But a mosque itself is a holy place, sacred ground, where folks come to worship and pray and seek God. Or is it not really sacred ground but just “sacred only to  Christians” ground?

The folks who want to build on the site are people of God who desire a place to worship in one of the most diverse cities in the world. New York City is about 70% Christian, and also home to 1 million estimated Muslims, 700,000 Jews and many other faith traditions. The proposed building will not merely be a mosque but rather is scheduled to be a community center. It will have a mosque as part of its architecture but it will be far, far more.

Would you allow a community center in your neighborhood?

In some ways it is absurd that we are asking this question at all. The United States is founded on the freedom of religion. The freedom to worship God in any way shape or form (or no God at all) and the freedom to have our religious choice respected and protected is our foundation. We are all equal, no matter our religious perspective, under the laws of this country. So how can we possibly deny a building request based on religion?

Moreover, we are a nation that practices separation of religion and state (more often incorrectly referred to as separation of church and state—an indication of the problem already). The religious nature of the entity engaged in a legal proposal of a building contract for a commercial site of land should have no bearing. It is a legal transaction requiring zoning or government approval that is true for all buildings. Religion should have no part. We say this. We’ve fought wars to protect this. We base our nation on this.

Yet a mosque should not be built next to the 911 site. Why is that?

I am a Christian. You are Christians. What has been done by “Christians” in the past? A short list would include the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch burnings, slavery, murder of doctors providing abortion services, genocide of Indians and native peoples, sexual molestation of children, hate speech at Pride rallies, subjugation of women…  Like I said, a short list.

Given all that history, should we have to seek permission from the local authorities for the location of our church should we choose to build one? Should the decision be made based on the behavior of Christians as a whole, or based on the actions of some Christian extremists like the ones who tried to kill police officers in west Michigan last spring? Should the authorities notify my neighbors before I move in, since I bring such a shameful history and background with me?

Perhaps that seems a little absurd, denying a church a place to build. But is it? Is it really any different than the conversation we are having now? Why won’t we let the mosque be built?

Because they are Muslims. Because Muslims are responsible for the 9-11 bombings. Because it is insensitive. Because it denies the experience of the people whose loved ones died that day.

Or so it is said…

I wonder, do you think of Timothy McVeigh as one of “us”? Do you think of him as a Christian who followed his Christian beliefs and blew up the Oklahoma City government building making a grand statement of his faith? McVeigh was a Christian. I imagine he died a Christian. But we call McVeigh a terrorist. A terrorist is someone who attacks without distinction innocent people to scare, destroy, and terrorize people or governments or individuals. McVeigh was a terrorist.

The 9-11 hijackers were terrorists. They may have been Muslims and died Muslims. But they were terrorists. And though there may be truth in their accusations of the US’s complicity in political corruption, global financial oppression, and inhumane foreign policy, their actions were unacceptable, horrific and untenable. They were acts of terrorism. They were not acts of piety. They were not acts in accordance to God.

            Just like the Crusades was political maneuvering under the guise of Christian salvation of  the Holy Land.

                        Just like the Salem witch trials was the fear of diversity (plus possible inadvertent  grain poisoning) clothed as driving out the Devil.

                                    Just as hate speech at the Pride march is just that, hate, masquerading as  compassionate saving of damned souls from eternity in hell.

It is not terrorists building a community center. The worshipping community that wishes to build a mosque is just that—a community of believers who found a piece of land in a crowded city where they wished to plant their community. Why that piece of land? Why not that piece of land?

Lost in the uproar is the fact that two mosques already exist in the neighborhood and have operated for decades, one four blocks from Ground Zero, the other twelve blocks. And the head of the planned 9/11 mosque -- actually it's to be a multi-purpose community center -- has been imam of a mosque ten blocks north of Ground Zero for 30 years. (He's also served in Mideast outreach initiatives of both the Obama and Bush administrations.) (8/19/10, Huffington Post)

Moving the mosque to this neighborhood is not a random act. It is not an act of provocation. People have shared their worries that it will be like a show and tell—ooh, look out our windows and see what we did for the faith of Allah.  I don’t think so.

If anything I can see a mosque so close to the site as being a place of healing, of understanding, of teaching, an opportunity to offer educational information to the many folks who come to see the memorial of 9-11 about the difference between faith and terrorism, between Islam and extremist agendas. In fact, although 60% of New Yorkers are against the proposed project, 50% see merit in the building, believing it will help bring tolerance to their city. That means that even 10% of the folks against it see the possibilities for peace and reconciliation.

What I imagine would make things worse is for the mosque to be denied—to be moved further away in order to preserve “sensitivities”  or the political agenda now inexorably tied up in this—but as one member of that congregation said—how far away? Is four blocks away far enough? Or six blocks? Or eight blocks? Or 20 blocks? It is not then sensitivities we are preserving but rather misunderstanding, hatred and ignorance.

If I were a terrorist, what better fuel for the fire than to point out the Americans who say they value freedom and inclusion and religious protection and yet display overwhelming hypocrisy in the siting of this mosque. The terrorists claim that Muslims are oppressed by the US. Do we wish to prove them right? Do we wish to throw fuel on the fire of intolerance and mistrust?

Requests and permits to build mosques are being denied all over the western world. Murfreesboro, Tennessee has blocked a mosque in their city. The Muslim community is overcrowded and overflowing their current site, but they are not allowed to build.

Ron Ramsey, Tennessee's lieutenant governor was quoted saying, "you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, a way of life or cult, whatever you want to call it?" while congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik said the center is part of "a political movement designed to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee." (www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011847,00)

It is not just in the US either. In Switzerland legislation has passed banning mosques. Intolerance is spreading.

So what are we as people of faith, Christians, people of faith that have our own sordid, messy, violent, degrading, genocidal history and to some degree present, what do we say in this situation. What is the word that God is putting in our mouths as this morning’s Jeremiah text reads?

I believe that as Christians we should be judged on our own merits. That Edgewood church shouldn’t be written off as homophobic just because other churches in the Lansing area are. That the UCC shouldn’t be written off as racially intolerant and supporting a missionary structure that destroys local indigenous cultures just because other denominations in this country are. That what others do in the name of Christianity is not necessarily of Christ or of God just because they say it is. Statements of hate, damnation, exclusion and oppression and fear are not the truth of  God.

And I believe that we owe it to our Muslim neighbors at the Islamic center, and our Muslim brothers and sisters in the US, the same courtesy. That the words of hate and exclusion and violence that come out of the mouths of some, and the actions of terrorism of some, are not the truth of God, despite some saying it is so.  That the work of peace and justice and hope and inclusion and sacrifice is being done by our Muslim neighbors in faith, too.

“For let's face the ugly fact: What does it mean, really, to assert that a mosque at Ground Zero "desecrates" hallowed ground? It means, in plainest language, that the desecrating being done is by people who are unholy, evil, unclean.”  (Carla Seaquist, huffingtonpost.com)

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, supports the Constitutional right to build the center. In a speech he talked about the firefighters and police officers who entered the burning towers on 9/11 and Bloomberg stated unequivocally: "We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights---and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked." Noting this to be "as important a test" of the separation of church and state "as we may see in our lifetime," he added, "it is critically important that we get it right." Indeed! (Carla Seaquist, huffingtonpost.com)

It is critically important that we get it right. Yes, to protect our political freedoms, freedoms extended to all people. But as people of faith, as Christians, it is critical that we get it right. To not allow hate in the guise of religious or political sensitivity to go unchecked. To speak up for our brothers and sisters in the Abrahamic tradition. To understand our own complicated, terror strewn past as part of our history and to some degree our present, but not who we claim to be.

We need to get it right. To speak forth the truth of God placed in our mouths. To seek justice being done and religious freedom being held up. To be the voices of peace and tolerance and inclusivity in the midst of such anger and intolerance. Those are the words God has for us. And in this moment in time there seems to be no better place to witness to that truth than at an abandoned coat factory in New York City. Amen.