by Jacqueline Uranga, staff writer

The First Amendment of the Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The roughly 600,000 Muslims living in New York City are as entitled to this right as all other Americans.

It is clear that Park51, the Mosque and inter-faith community center scheduled to be built in lower Manhattan, would be essential to thousands of Muslim Americans to be able to freely practice their religion.

Our country is not defined by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but by the freedoms that Americans died to defend. Sixty-one Muslims died in the attack on the World Trade Center, more than three times the number of Muslim terrorists involved in the attacks.

Salman Hamdani was a 23-year-old police cadet and licensed paramedic who came to the aid of World Trade Center victims on 9/11 where he was killed in the collapse of the North Tower.

Police spent months searching his computer and questioning his family, certain that Hamdani was involved in the attack. His name was not cleared until March 2002, when Hamdani’s remains were identified at the Trade Center, in 34 pieces.

“Most people would have gone in the other direction (during the aftermath of the attacks),” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “He went in to help people.”

After the sacrifices made by Americans of all religions on 9/11, the most disgraceful thing that we could do as a country would be to deny one religion their house of worship.

It is unimaginable that America could tell the hundreds of Muslims in New York who lost family members on 9/11 that they cannot build a mosque because it is too close to the site where their family member was killed.

“Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is unnecessary provocation; it stabs hearts,” Sarah Palin tweeted in July. “Pls reject it in interest of healing.”

Such words show little consideration and sensitivity for the peace-seeking Muslims who lost children on 9/11.

“You did not lose a child in the 9/11 attack. You don’t know what it is that we went through,” said the mother of Salman Hamdani in response to Palin.

Ground Zero is indeed hallowed ground for the families of 9/11 victims. But the area surrounding Ground Zero cannot be given the same significance without removing the numerous strip clubs, bars and sex shops from its vicinity.

While it is true that debris from the planes involved in the 9/11 attacks fell in the area around Park51, not all of Manhattan affected by 9/11 can be given equal status.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously against giving landmark status to 45-47 Park Place, the proposed site for the mosque and community center.

There is a part of New York that will always be a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, but Park51, the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory in Lower Manhattan, is not that part of New York.

There is fear the controversy surrounding the Mosque will bring violence and vandalism to the area once it is built. Threats against the mosque and  Muslims themselves cannot prevent America from standing behind its principles. America is a nation of laws, not threats.

When a Muslim taxi driver was stabbed in New York in August, it was his attacker who acted criminally. If those in opposition to the mosque vandalize or terrorize the building, the country must continue to protect the right of all Americans and not be influenced by intimidation and violence.

Questions arising from opponents of the mosque concerning ties between Park51 and radical terrorist groups in the Middle East are nothing more than further attempts to shift focus to an overseas enemy. These questions are irrelevant to the right to have a mosque in the area around Ground Zero and the right of Muslim Americans to freely practice their religion.

In the debate over the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” the focus must be shifted back to the American principles that have been protected for centuries against adversity.

The only way to protect America’s identity now is to protect the rights of all Americans, of all faiths, and in all circumstances.