Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid publicly stated "build the mosque somewhere else" seemingly adopting his Republican opponent Sharron Angle's position that one must "say no to the mosque at Ground Zero" or "side with President Obama" and be "against the families of 9/11 victims."
Finally, there was Don Lemon on CNN expressing, as Glenn Greenwald writes, "the crux of the "mosque' opposition":
Lemon: Don't you think it's a bit different considering what happened on 9/11? And the people have said there's a need for it in Lower Manhattan, so that's why it's being built there. What about 10, 20 blocks . . . Midtown Manhattan, considering the circumstances behind this? That's not understandable?
Patel: In America, we don't tell people based on their race or religion or ethnicity that they are free in this place, but not in that place --
Lemon: [interrupting] I understand that, but there's always context, Mr. Patel . . . this is an extraordinary circumstance. You understand that this is very heated. Many people lost their loved ones on 9/11 --
Patel: Including Muslim Americans who lost their loved ones. . . .
Lemon: Consider the context here. That's what I'm talking about.
Patel:I have to tell you that this seems a little like telling black people 50 years ago:you can sit anywhere on the bus you like - just not in the front.
Lemon:I think that's apples and oranges -I don't think that black people were behind a Terrorist plot to kill people and drive planes into a building.That's a completely different circumstance.
Patel: And American Muslims were not behind the terrorist plot either. [emphasis not added]
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