If Mr. Rauf truly wants to assist the cause of interfaith understanding, he'll build Cordoba House somewhere else.

The most insulting thing about this is the name for the center, The Cordoba Center. It refers to Cordoba, Spain, the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.

And while I’m at it, how many churches and synagogs are there in Saudi Arabia?

I’m sure they’d be happy to oblige us there.

Maybe in Mecca they’d be happy with a Southern Baptist welcome center.

I mean…in this time of tolerance and understanding, I am sure the president will push for that.

… if Ground Zero has been made sacred by tragedy, it’s hard to say the same for the Pussycat Lounge one block south of the site. The front entrance of the strip club and bar, which has been there for more than four decades, offers a clear view of the ongoing construction at the World Trade Center site.