Guest Opinion: The Ground Zero Mosque and Religious Freedom

9/14/2010

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wide open to all of reality. He gives us an infinite desire to know Him in this world in which He inhabits - if only we have the eyes to see Him. I believe that as Catholics in America we should support the building of this Islamic Center and mosque. The truth, beauty and goodness of the Catholic faith should not make us afraid. It should make us bold.

We must be open to dialogue with those who we don't agree with or with those who we don't fully understand. We must give them the freedom to follow their own religious sense.

I believe this is what it means to be most fully Catholic - and to be most fully American. Let us continue to honor all those that have fallen in foreign lands to bring freedom to our fellow human beings and to those that lost their lives on 9-11. I leave everything in the hands of Our Lady.

Disclaimer - The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and not those of the U.S. Army.

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David Jones holds a Masters in Theological Studies from the Institute of Religious and Pastoral Studies, University of Dallas. While at UD he studied under Douglas Bushman, Fr. Mitch Pacwa, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ed Peters, and many other outstanding Catholic scholars. He is a member of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a Pontifically recognized and approved eccelsial movement. He has spoken internationally in Italy at the Rimini Meeting and at the Assembly of International Responsibles in La Thuile in addition to speaking throughout much of the United States.

This article first appeared on September 11, 2010 in the publication ilsussidiaro.net and is used with the kind permission of that publication and the author. His writings have been published in TRACES, God-Spy, Traditional Catholic Reflections and Reports, Catholic Online, The American Catholic, and Il Sussidiario. He also runs a popular blog entitled La Nouvelle Theologie His conversion story is published in the Italian book entitled Sotto Il Cielo D'America (Under the American Sky) written by Marco Bardazzi. The introduction of this book has been translated into English and is available on-line here

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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1 - 10 of 43 Comments

Anon
2 years ago
First of all I need to get this to everyone out there reading this, NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE TERRORISTS. The Al-Qaeda use the Islam religion as their purpose, when the Koran doesn't say anything about bombing any sort. The Muslims are even very nervous with the Al-Qaeda, they don't know if they're donating money for their Mosque, or giving money to the Al-Qaeda. In a rare chance, the Muslims building this Mosque didn't know anything about the 9/11 attack, until now, when we're getting mad about it. And I've heard that they aren't building it right on Ground Zero, only close to it. We should all calm down about it. We're should just allow the religion of someone else, it's one of our rights as Americans.
Patrick
2 years ago
The description of burning flesh in Iraq with their everyday people, including women and children being brutally killed, is exactly what happened on Tuesday, 11 September 2001, in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Christian forgiveness does not negate Christian justice; it is a good thing for the followers of Jesus to be have a decent self-respect as well as fighting to protect the innocent. Otherwise those who hate will continue strike anyone knowing that they will not be stopped - and they will not care if they are forgiven.

Why does it appear that the victims of criminals and terrorists are the only ones expected to extend understanding, or worse, are often made into the perpetrators? Building a mosque at Ground Zero would be like rubbing salt in the wounds of those who still suffer from Muslim extremists who murdered, not only Christians and Jews, but fellow Muslims, there on that day.

Please stop belittling the hurting in the world:
it is unjust,
it is unkind,
it is un-Christian.
Manuel De Leon
2 years ago
In plain English, Islam is not a religion. It's a Culture. Therefore it's not allowed to build any mosque on any place.
Period.
saad
2 years ago
I personally support the construction of the Mosque at Ground zero. I've gone through all coments and it really shows that most Americans don't nderstand Islam.
Dear Folks; You can be a GOOD Muslim without being RADICAL!
Bulbajer
2 years ago
Pam: I'm not saying we should allow Sharia in the U.S. I would be militantly opposed to that. But most Muslims who live here just want to be able to practice their religion in a country of considerably freer oportunity and less violence than most other countries in the world. Even if some of them might feel that some Islamic laws aught to be part of the civil law, they're not murderers. They're not haters. So why should we imitate Saudi Arabia and not allow mosques? How much do you think it would help the already poor situation for Christians and other non-Muslims in the Arab world? Not much. How much do you think it would help U.S. foreign policy? Not much.
Of course, I'm talking about any mosque. I am personally opposed to the mosque in question; I assumed that Kate was talking about mosques in the U.S. in general.
John Jones
2 years ago
Rivka

It was a blessing to read your post.
Pam
2 years ago
Bulbajer: So are we all to bow toward Mecca? We are not talking about "an eye for an eye...," here, but all that comes along with "Sharia" law.
Bulbajer
2 years ago
Kate, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is not very Christian-sounding to me.
Kate
2 years ago
Muslims would never permit a Catholic Church, which is also a community gathering center, to be built in their countries. Nuff, said.
Bulbajer
2 years ago
C.t. - I don't know whether you're talking about 9/11/01 when you say that Muslims were dancing in the streets or the anniversary of 9/11 this year. This year the end of Ramadan came on 9/11, which might have caused some misunderstandings about Islamic celebrations and the anniversary of 9/11.

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