Why the Mosque in New York Has to Be Built

Why the Mosque in New York should be built

By Andre Lim- Year 9

To me, religion is a load of bunk. Sure, some of you may have been bought up to believe in a certain faith and may even go to a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or another place of worship each week but many young people today will probably be more concerned about exam results, boy/girl friends, and videogames etc. Religion is full of contradictions. It is supposed to provide spiritual guidance to mankind and to spread the good word of God, yet throughout history, several religions have also been manipulators, dividers, and destroyers of humanity. How did the Catholic Church muster millions of men to die in the Crusades? Why was Pakistan split off from India resulting in thousands killed in the riots during the partition? Why do the Jews and the Arabs fight two wars in recent history? Why did Catholics and Protestants kill each other in Northern Ireland? And what drove dozens of young, radical Muslims to blow themselves up and kill non-Muslims?

The controversy to build an Islamic mosque and cultural centre a couple of blocks from Ground Zero in New York is a case in point. Currently it's an abandoned coat factory but when the construction is completed, the mosque and community centre (all people are welcome to both) will control the backlog from another mosque down the road. Perfectly HARMLESS reasons you might think, but not good enough for people like the 90's neo-conservative former Speaker of House, Newt Gringrich and the legendary queen of the Tea Party…… Sarah Palin!!!

They claim that this mosque, Park 51 is an insensitive shrine promoting radical Islam's victory over the Western world and a 15-story insult to the 2400 people who perished on that fateful day of 9/11, and they aren't alone. A survey conducted by Time Magazine found the 52% of Manhattan residents surveyed opposed