Many believe that there should be no religious presence at the Trade Center. Even those who welcome interfaith gatherings say that holding Muslim ceremonies there is still too sensitive an issue. At its heart, the ongoing debate about religion at Ground Zero is a conflict between the sacrosanct belief in individual rights, which dates back to the nation’s founding, and the site’s exceptional history.
This conflict emerged explicitly in 2010, when Park51, an Islamic mosque and cultural center, sought to build on a location two blocks from Ground Zero and met with divisive acrimony. Many supported the plan, including the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, which affirmed the mosque’s constitutional rights. Once the media and others began referring to the “WTC mosque” and the “victory mosque,” a national controversy ignited. Mayor Bloomberg defended Park51, saying, “Our first responders defended not only our city but also our country and our constitution. We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights—and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.” Shortly after the tenth anniversary of September 11, the mosque opened and, just as quietly, closed.
In July 2014, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the right of the 9/11 Memorial Museum to display the Ground Zero Cross, a steel crossbeam that was recovered at the site and that resembles a Latin cross. Mass was said weekly at the cross during the recovery effort, sometimes attracting upward of 300 people, and it became a symbol of hope, faith, and healing for many rescue workers. The ruling cited the landmark 1948 McCollum v. Board of Education decision that “for good or for ill, nearly everything in our culture worth transmitting, everything that gives meaning to life, is saturated with religious influences.”