The city of New York has cleared the way for a mosque and Muslim community center to be built near the ground zero site. This has promped protests from some who feel that this would disrespect the memory of the victims fo the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

I don't get it.

The reactions I've seen seem to suggest that a mosque would be some kind of a concession to the terrorists. One fo the protest signs I saw on the news said that Muslims put up mosques to mark the place of victories.

I understand the depth of the feelings about ground Zero. I remember watching the news in horror when the buildings collapsed, and feeling outrage that anyone could do such a thing. But it is a terrible mistake to act as if all Muslims are terrorists, or even extremists. The vast majority of Muslims I've met have been kind, decent, law-abiding people who care about their families and want to be good neighbors. In this they are very much like most of the Christians I've known, and most of the Jews, Buddhists, and Athiests.

There is a problem with violent extremism in the Muslim world, and it would be foolish to ignore this. But is is even more foolish, in my opinion, to blame all Muslims for the actions of a minority group. (Militant extremists are a very small minority in Islam, which is fortunate. Imagine what the world would be like if any significant fraction of the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world were terrorists.)

The people who would be worshipping in the Mosque and using the community center are innocent of the horror of 9-11 and the people who are guilty would have no interest in having such a place built. The proposed Mosque is meant to cultivate religious tolerance and healing, two of the last things the terrorists want to see.

Anger is natural after such a senseless tragedy, but holding onto anger makes it impossible for us to heal. And turning that anger against the blameless only makes our wounds worse. Jesus calls on us to firgive even the guilty. That's a tall order, but surely we can forgive the innocent.