To sound the adhan or to not sound the adhan?

In the Manhattan district of New York City, a construction proposal has the whole nation asking this question. More specifically, can the Islamic call to prayer ring from minarets in shouting distance from where Islamic extremists brought down towers of American life and crashed planes into the American spirit?

A seemingly clear cut issue has ignited passions on all sides of the political spectrum. The Cordoba Initiative, an organization "dedicated to improving Muslim-west relations" as per their website, recently purchased a building a few blocks from Ground Zero, the site of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The organization takes its name from a city in Spain that historically served as an intellectual meeting point for people of Islamic, Christian and Jewish Traditions. The idyllic image conjured by the name sadly seems a far cry from the partisan bickering that has engulfed the proposed construction.

The reasoning for the construction is solid. The justification against it rests on shakier ground. The proposed building is not simply a traditional mosque but rather an entire community center. The design calls for a 15 floor building including an auditorium, lecture hall, library and classrooms. Among the rooms for cooking classes, the gym and pool for exercising, and the nursery for childcare, there also is a Muslim prayer space. It is this area, a room for worship among other spaces for play and learning, that is serving as fodder for an incredibly outspoken opposition.

Some republican commentators decry the construction as a testament to terrorism. They obviously do not know much about monuments. The hijackers attempted to crush the American soul and wound a powerful giant of freedom. A monument to this would be shambles of a building, an economy, a spirit. Instead, the creation of a Muslim community center is a 15 story high statement that our values of freedom are stronger than ever. Yes, extremists from the Islamic faith did horrible things, but even that cannot shake our resolve that peaceful people of all traditions have the right to worship as they believe.

Sarah Palin, a darling of the radicals on the right, pundits on the left and everyone with a sense of humor in between, raised another common complaint against the proposed center. She said the construction stabs at the heart of the still "too real and too raw" pain from the terrorist attacks.

The loss of life in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was as immeasurable as such an assault was unfathomable. The pain caused by this loss cannot be calculated and should not be trivialized. But when must the pain of the past be honored more than the facts of the future? I choose not to side with American sadness but rather to focus on our strength. No matter how intense the opposition, we always fight to let freedom ring - even from a minaret.