Is there any reason to oppose the mosque that isn't bigoted, or demagogic, or unconstitutional?" asks Michael Kinsley. "None that I've heard or read.

Salon magazine did a good piece on the Park51 controversy discussing the holes of the arguments against the cultural center. As someone who lived 1 block east of the World Trade Center site for 8 years I can't stand people spitting venom at my neighborhood. Why don't you let those people who live down there deal with their own lives. We don't need you speaking up for us, thank you very much. It is paternalistic, bigoted, offensive, and downright un-American.

I think that Frank Rich's op-ed of how the fight against the cultural center is a fight against America's wars in the middle east. It's worth a read, too.

John Stewart interviewed Akbar Ahmed who did a study of Islam in American and provided some interesting historical perspectives about what the founding fathers thought of Islam. Worth a watch.

Sorry for the commercials at the start, but that's how Comedy Central does it. The interview starts at about 14:30 seconds in. You can fast forward.

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Hateful Ground Zero Hypocrisy

by Peter Beinart

The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart gives a stinging critique of the Anti-Defamation League's stance on building a mosque near Ground Zero.

This, like many of the articles I've seen neglected to mention one constituent group - what about all of the Muslim victims of 9/11? The mosque could certainly serve their needs. What about all of the Muslim families in lower Manhattan? I lived in lower Manhattan for 8 years, and there are churches, mosques, synagogues galore. One more just seems like a service to me.