Letter: Should Mosques be Built Near the World Trade Center?

Like me, I'm sure you've read reports about the proposed mosque and Islamic
center scheduled to be built in Lower Manhattan, just two blocks from the
site where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything more insensitive to
New Yorkers and their families than construction of a mosque in the shadows
of the World Trade Center. I oppose this move and intend to do everything
possible to highlight this position.

In fact, more than six weeks ago, I wrote a letter to the New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission, urging them to block the planned mosque.
They refused, but the fight isn't over.

According to a recent Siena Research Institute poll, an overwhelming number
of New Yorkers agree. In the suburbs of New York City, in the communities
in which you and I live and work, only 13 percent support it while 66
percent are opposed.

I've recently launched an on-line petition drive at
www.skelos.nysenate.gov, and urge you to join me in making your voice
heard.

None of us will ever forget where we were when we learned the horrific news
that New York and America had been attacked by an evil group of Islamic
terrorists who had seized commercial airliners filled with innocent people
in order to use them as weapons to kill as many people as possible. Our
sense of normalcy was gone and our lives were changed forever.

I attended dozens of funerals for men and women who lived in the 9th Senate
District and worked in Lower Manhattan, and were murdered by those
terrorists. They kissed their children goodbye in the early morning hours
of September 11 and never came home. I hugged, held and prayed with
grieving spouses who didn't know how they would ever manage to go on with
their lives. We owe each and every one of them a strong response to this
injustice.

There's no doubt that New Yorkers are a strong and resilient bunch. We
came together in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and lent a hand to Long
Islanders and others in their time of need.

I am forever thankful that Rudy Giuliani was serving as the mayor of New
York City on the morning of September 11, and that he was able focus our
energies for good, and bring calm to the city and surrounding area.

They say "time heals all wounds," but that's not really true. While we
have come a long way since that fateful day, we will never be the same.
Too many bright lights in our communities, in our places of worship and in
our households were extinguished far too soon.

Please lend your voice to the fight to stop construction of this mosque at
the site where the War on Terror began.

— Senator Dean Skelos