What Constitutes Hallowed Ground?

The national debate about the "Ground Zero Mosque" (actually a community center in which there is a small mosque amongst many other things, much like an old-school YMCA) has taken an interesting turn, as such things always do, as those opposed to it try to come up with a non-racist reason for why they oppose it. Obviously they oppose it because they don't care for Muslims, Arabs, or really anyone different, but that doesn't play as well publicly.

So their excuse for opposing it is that the area surrounding Ground Zero is "hallowed ground" and it would be inappropriate to build anything there that is associated with the religion the 9/11 hijackers also happened to share. You see, they're not racist, they just want to protect "hallowed ground."

The Daily Show has done a great job pointing out that the sight of the mosque is a former Burlington Coat Factory, putting a bit of a dent in the hallowed-ness of the site. But to one up even that, here's a great photo collection of all of the other public spaces the same distance from Ground Zero as the proposed community center.

It does a great job of putting into perspective the other sorts of things these racist folks are perfectly fine with having on "hallowed ground."


Careful what kind of prurient thoughts you have here, for this is on hallowed ground