Hoo boy... this issue sets wrong with me on several levels.

On the one hand, it is EXTREMELY xenophobic and religiously intolerant. This country was founded by people who were escaping the same sort of thing. People are real quick to get on right-wing AM talk radio and talk about how they're losing an American way of life, completely ironically forgetting that America had been built on, partially, a platform of religious freedom. It's hard to take it seriously when the very same people bitching about what America means and losing that are the same people who, through shit like this, are suppressing the very thing America actually is supposed to mean.

On the other hand, I'm not, nor did I know, any 9/11 victims. Some patriotic boob who has equally as little to do with it as me has absolutely no business protesting this mosque because of what I pointed out above-- hypocritical meaning of what America is and should be. However, can you REALLY fault people who have been personally affected? We all know racism is wrong, but are you as quick to point that out to a, say, black man, whose whole family was killed by Mexicans and he subsequently distrusts all Mexicans? Sure, he's wrong, but is he not allowed that fear? You're essentially telling him to "get over it," which is just as unsympathetic to him as denying a mosque to people who had nothing to do with 9/11 except sharing a common religion.

I must admit to being logic-bombed by this issue to the point where I can't pick a side either way. It's insensitive to the victims (not the random asshole, fuck him and his religious bigotry) but it's equally as insensitive to people who just want a place of worship that is guaranteed as their right in this country.

In other words, man, am I glad I don't have to make that decision. So my only real opinion can be "whatever happens, happens," just as long as it doesn't escalate into a violent or hateful situation.