by Jacob Hirsohn, staff writer

New York City is a very large place, and the only area where it would be extremely insensitive to build a mosque is the area around Ground Zero.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim extremists hijacked two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center Towers, causing the buildings to collapse. The area where these buildings stood is known as Ground Zero.

Now SoHo Properties, a real estate company run by Sharif El-Gamal, is attempting to build a Muslim community center with a designated prayer room blocks away from the site.

To build the center would be insensitive and unnecessary. It would create more tension between Americans and the Muslim world, and could cause violence toward Muslims in New York.

Also, El-Gamal has rumored links to terrorist groups, which means he could use the Mosque as a recruiting center.

El-Gamal also has a criminal past, including multiple assaults. He is a shady figure, and with his links to terrorism, he is not the type of person who should be tied to a building causing this kind of tension.

El-Gamal is just another reason for people to fear and hate this building, just another reason to protest, and there are already too many as it is.

The last thing the country needs is violence associated with the mosque. The risk for violent protest is too great.

In July 2010, the New York Times reported a poll showing 66 percent of New York residents are against the Ground Zero Mosque. This is proof that it would cause tension and violence between Americans and the Muslim world because if two out of every three New Yorkers are opposed to the building, then two out of three New Yorkers would be very upset if it is built.

New York citizens could protest the mosque, and a window could get broken, or someone could get hit, and tense feelings about the situation would start to escalate.

The 9/11 attacks had the same effect. After the attacks there were several examples of hate crimes and reported vandalism throughout the country on Muslims or people who looked Muslim.

For example, just four days after 9/11, Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot and killed in Mesa, Arizona. He was a Sikh but because he wore a turban, one man assumed he was a Muslim and murdered him for a crime he had nothing to do with.

On the same day, Waqar Hasan was shot and killed in his convenience store in Dallas because he was Muslim.

Many Americans are still very passionate and upset about the tragedies of 9/11, especially those who lost a loved one.

New York residents who lost someone on 9/11 have to go through the pain all over again when they look at Ground Zero. It would be incredibly unfair to make that worse by building a Muslim worship center just a few blocks away from the site of that pain.

Putting this building up anywhere else in New York would be fine, but it has to be away from Ground Zero.

There are hundreds of other vacant buildings in New York, they can purchase one, and build the center there.

It’s that easy.

For more on this issue, read opinions editor Aaron Bandler’s column opposing a mosque at Ground Zero at www.thecalifornianpaper.com.