JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

The Ground Zero mosque: More Jews weigh in

By Uriel Heilman · August 4, 2010

The Anti-Defamation League's decision to oppose the planned mosque and Islamic cultural center at the Ground Zero site has prompted Jews on all sides of the issue to weigh in.

• Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic: "The Cordoba Initiative, which is headed by an imam named Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an enemy of al Qaeda, no less than Rudolph Giuliani and the Anti-Defamation League are enemies of al Qaeda.  Bin Laden would sooner dispatch a truck bomb to destroy the Cordoba Initiative's proposed community center than he would attack the ADL, for the simple reason that Osama's most dire enemies are Muslims."
• Novelist Thane Rosenbaum, in The Huffington Post: "Yes, those behind the building of the mosque may have a legal right to do so, but why would they want to exercise that right given what they know of the wishes of the survivors and families of 9/11?"
• J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami: The principle at stake in the Cordoba House controversy goes to the heart of American democracy and the value we place on freedom of religion. Should one religious group in this country be treated differently than another? We believe the answer is no.
• Rob Eshman of the L.A. Jewish Journal: "Perhaps the real reason we find it hard to make peace with Cordoba House is that, as much as it will symbolize tolerance and understanding, it also reminds us of a deeply discomfiting fact of life: Terrorism works. That’s what we can’t quite accept, what we wish weren’t so... Now downtown New York will have a state-of-the-art Moslem community, cultural and religious center, thanks to a vicious act of Islamic terror. It’s the right thing to do, but, man, what a way to learn."
• The American Jewish Committee: The mosque "has a right to be built. At the same time, AJC urged the founders of the center to urgently address concerns about funding and support for terrorism."