Guest Comments, Letter From Michael Moore

The writer, an American author and Academy Award-winning film-maker, frequently comments on politics and business.

MICHIGAN, United States -- I oppose building a “mosque” two blocks from Ground Zero, the New York site of the September 11 terrorism attack nine years ago. I want it built right on Ground Zero.

Why? Because I believe in an America that protects the victims of hate and prejudice, that says you can worship whatever God you have wherever you wish and that shows the world love and generosity. If a few murderers hijack a religion as an excuse to kill, I want the faithful to get their religion back, and I want to put it right where it was stolen.

So much has been said about this manufactured controversy. In case you missed the truth, I'll mention a few facts:

-- I love the Burlington Coat Factory. I've gotten great winter coats there at reasonable prices. Muslims have held daily prayers there since 2009. No one complained about that. This won't be a “mosque”. It's going to be a community center with the same prayer room that's already there. But having to assure people that “it's not going to be mosque” is so offensive that I wish they'd build a 111-storey mosque there. That would beat the disgusting way the developer left Ground Zero as an empty hole until recently. The remains of 1,100 people haven't been found. The site is a sacred graveyard and to build another monument to commerce on it is sacrilege. Why wasn't the entire site turned into a memorial peace park?

-- Guess who helped the Muslims to organize plans for this community center? The Jewish Community Centre of Manhattan whose rabbi has given advice from the start. This has been a picture-perfect example of the kind of world we all want. Plus the Imam in charge of the project is the nicest guy you could meet.

-- About 60 Muslims died at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Hundreds of their family members still grieve and suffer. The 19 killers did not care what religion anyone belonged to when they took those lives.

-- I've never read a sadder headline in the New York Times than one recently on the front page: American Muslims Ask, Will We Ever Belong? That should make us all ashamed. Fellow citizens shouldn't need to worry if they “belong”.

-- There is a McDonald's restaurant two blocks from Ground Zero. Trust me! McDonald's has killed more people than the terrorists did.

-- During economic depressions or wars, fascists whip up fear and hate, getting the working class to blame “the other”. Lincoln's enemies told poor Southern whites he was “a Catholic'. FDR's opponents said he was Jewish and called him “Jewsevelt”. Some Americans believe Obama is a Muslim and wasn't born here.

-- Blaming a whole group for the actions of a few is anti-American. Timothy McVeigh was Catholic. Should Oklahoma City prohibit Catholic churches near the site of the former federal building that McVeigh blew up?

-- Let's face it. All religions have wackos. Catholics have O'Reilly, Gingrich, Hannity and Clarence Thomas. Protestants have Pat Robertson and many others. The Mormons have Glenn Beck. But we don't judge entire religions on just the actions of their wackos.

-- If I ever, God forbid, perish in a terrorist-incident, and you or some nutty group uses my death to justify attacking or discriminating against anyone in my name, I will return and haunt you worse than Linda Blair marrying Freddy Krueger and moving into your bedroom to spawn Chucky.

By now, we all have a responsibility to make sure the Muslim community center gets built. Once again, 70 per cent of the country (the same number that initially supported the Iraq War) stands on the wrong side and wants the “mosque” moved. The Imam faces enormous pressure to stop his project. We must turn this around.

Are we going to let bullies and thugs win again? What better time to take our country back from the haters?

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