"Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts"

By Arnold Ahlert

"Timing is everything. Despite my experience with New York liberals that leads me to believe they are capable of anything, I suspect that if the effort to erect a mosque near Ground Zero had occurred at a different time--say, September 12, 2001--both the Community Board and the Landmark Preservation Commission might have come to a different conclusion. I suspect much of the talk about religious freedom now would have been met with stunned silence--or an out-and-out riot--then.

So what's changed? Don't we still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Aren't we still dealing with numerous domestic terrorist plots perpetrated by Muslim fanatics? Aren't Americans still being murdered? Don't Islamo-fascists still have every intention of imposing a worldwide caliphate by any means necessary?

Aren't the victims of the 9/11 atrocity still dead?"