OKC Muslim Association Says Mosque Near Ground Zero Should be Moved to Agreeable Site

An Oklahoma City Muslim group said the religious freedom issue has already been settled, but said sensitivity is needed over whether to build a Mosque near Ground Zero.

Monday, August 23rd 2010, 9:47 pm

By: News 9


By Ed Murray, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma City Muslim group said the religious freedom issue has already been settled, but said sensitivity is needed over whether to build a Mosque near Ground Zero.

The American Muslim Association of Oklahoma took out a full page ad in Monday's "Oklahoman." It's a call to move the project to a mutually agreeable site. Spokesman Saleem Nizami said it's time for moderate Muslims to speak out. He said the teachings of Islam demand sensitivity.

"It has become an iconic date 9/11 and the twin towers, so there is something related to that and people are becoming emotional. It is our duty to make sure we pacify and move away," said Nizami.

Despite good intentions and the legal right to build on that spot, the sensitivity teachings of Islam demand a new location.

"We've got to take into consideration the sentiments of the people. What difference does it make if it is there or five miles from there? It's not going to make any difference," Nizami said. "If the purpose was to get Islam and the West relations going together, this has brought more division actually."

And Nizami said the reason for that division is extremism on both sides.

"It's time that people who are practical stood up. It was due a long time ago," the American Muslim Association of Oklahoma spokesman said.

"With this ad I hope people realize that yes, there are people, who are Muslim, and who are just like anybody else. And who are solid 100 percent U.S. citizens, defending the Constitution, living by the rule of law. They want to make their lives here, they want to be part of this whole country," Nizami said.

Hundreds of people gathered in New York City over the weekend to protest the proposed mosque and Islamic community center two blocks away from Ground Zero.

They want the $100 million project to be moved somewhere else. A smaller group of mosque supporters held a counter-protest nearby.

Opponents say building a mosque so close to where the World Trade Centers once stood and then collapsed is insensitive. But supporters say it's not about emotions.

"It's about religious freedom," Tulsa Imam Arthur Farahkhan said. "It's about religious diversity."

Farahkhan said the entire religion should not be the scapegoat for terrorists.

"If you take that posture that a Muslim house of worship shouldn't be here because people who call themselves Muslim were responsible for destroying this, then we could take the position that we aren't going to have anything to do with Christians because the KKK are Christians," he said.

Imam Farahkhan said there are churches and synagogues in the area and Muslims should not be excluded.

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