Ground Zero

OK, here goes:

I think if the people backing the Mosque near Ground Zero were smart, they'd apologize, say it was obviously too much too soon, and build their Mosque elsewhere. Not because they're wrong, but because Islam really needs some good PR in the US.

They need to prove that there are two kinds of Muslims, and that the fanatics aren't running the show. Right now there isn't much, if any, evidence to that effect.

We go into Saudi Arabia at their request to defend them from their neighbors and somehow we're suddenly defiling sacred ground. Yet when they want to build near a crater where they killed hundreds of our civilians that's OK, because it isn't sacred ground.

We give arms and training to local people defending themselves from invaders, and they turn on us, instead of fighting against the people who invaded them. And it is our fault because we trained them.

We see people cheering after the towers fell. We see women being beaten for showing their faces, or wearing pants. We see people who strap bombs to their bodies and blow up civilians.

This kind of thing paints a picture if Islam, and it isn't a flattering one. If the people trying to build the Mosque want to separate themselves from that picture, they need to start using a different brush, and this is a perfect chance.

In the end, however, I think the Mosque will be built, and the picture will remain the same.