Family Life

08.16.10 | FL News Team

(Panama City, FL)  --  The controversy over plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero continues today after President Obama weighed in on the matter twice over the weekend. At an Iftar dinner at the White House to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Friday, Obama said, "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.  That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan."

Mr. Obama later clarified his remarks during a visit to the Gulf Coast on Saturday.  He said, "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there"I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there.  I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding."

The president made that clarification in response to critics of plans to build the 13-story Islamic community center and mosque two blocks north of the World Trade Center site.  Conservative politicians, such as former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, New York Congressman Peter King and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, say building the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" would be insensitive to all those whose loved ones were killed by Islamist terrorists on 9-11.