The "Ground Zero Mosque" debate - “Hallowed Ground”?

Daryl Lang's blog about media, culture and transit, The History Eraser Button, carried the following piece yesterday questioning Sarah Palin's remarks on the intolerability of proposed Islamic Centre on Park51, Lower Manhattan - close to the site of the World Trade Centre.

In the article, "Hallowed Grounds", Daryl Lang exhibits photos from locations as close to Ground Zero as the proposed community centre questioning the claim that the area around Ground Zero really is a hallowed area obsessed with the memory of the tragic events of 9/11.

For Daryl Lang, the photos demonstrate a different reality: "the blocks around Ground Zero are like every other hard-working neighborhood in New York, where Muslims are just another thread of the city fabric."

The self-answering question thus becomes: why did the proposition of an Islamic community centre near Ground Zero trigger so much debate and outrage? Is it really because of the project's violation of a hallowed memorial site? Or is it Islamophobia and the collective punishment of America's fastest growing religious community and their stigmatisation?

I leave you to check out the photo essay and decide for yourselves.