From Newsmax.com:

President Barack Obama on Friday forcefully endorsed building a mosque near ground zero, saying the country’s founding principles demanded no less.

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” Obama said, weighing in for the first time on a controversy that has riven New York City and the nation.

“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,” he said. “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.”

Obama made the comments at an annual dinner in the White House State Dining Room celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Republicans were quick to pounce on the president’s remarks.

“President Obama is wrong,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much.”

The White House had not previously taken a stand on the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic center to be built two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Press secretary Robert Gibbs had insisted it was a local matter.

It was already much more than that, sparking debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich announced their opposition. So did the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.

Obama elevated it to a presidential issue Friday without equivocation.

While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed “hallowed ground,” Obama said that the proper way to honor it was to apply American values

“Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect to those who are different from us — a way of life that stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today,” he said.

Entering the highly charged election-year debate, Obama surely knew that his words would not only make headlines but be heard by Muslims worldwide. The president has made it a point to reach out to the global Muslim community, and guests at Friday’s dinner included ambassadors and officials from numerous Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

While his pronouncement concerning the mosque might find favor in the Muslim world, Obama’s stance runs counter to the opinions of the majority of Americans, according to polls. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved.

A number of Democratic politicians have shied away from the controversy. New York’s mayor, independent Michael Bloomberg, has been a strong supporter of the mosque, which has won approval from local planning boards.

The group behind the $100 million project, the Cordoba Initiative, describes it as a Muslim-themed community center. Early plans call not only for prayer space but for a swimming pool, culinary school, art studios and other features. Developers envision it as a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith’s own schisms.

Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks. Some of the Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, however, are in favor.

More from The Wall Street Journal:

… Opponents, particularly conservatives, have called the proposed mosque an affront to those who died in the attack by Islamist terrorists. …

The mosque plan has generated opposition from a host of prominent Republicans, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Resistance to other mosque-building plans has sprouted around the country, but the symbolism of such a structure in close proximity to Ground Zero has generated a national argument.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the project, invoking both the city’s history of religious tolerance, and the price paid by Sept. 11 victims. …

The mayor’s view, and a vote by the city’s landmarks commission to let the project proceed, have done little to damp the opposition. A lawsuit has been filed seeking to stop the project. The two men seeking the GOP nomination for governor of New York have pledged to stop the mosque project if elected.

New York’s current governor, Democrat David Paterson, recently suggested he could negotiate an alternative location, but his overture was rejected by mosque planners, and by Mr. Bloomberg.

A Marist College poll found that 53% of New York City voters oppose constructing the mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center. Just 34% favored the plan.

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was the pilot of the plane the terrorists hijacked and flew into the Pentagon, said she was furious over the president’s remarks.

“I’m so angry. I believe this president has abandoned the American people,” she said. “This isn’t a fight about religious freedom for Muslims. No one has argued they don’t have the property rights. This is about a project led by someone who says he’s trying to build bridges and bring the community together and he’s chosen probably the worst place in America and the worst way to do it.”

From Doug Ross:

The president’s statements are utterly, completely false.

The imam in question has endorsed the implementation of Sharia law in the United States. By his own admission then, the brand of Islam he wishes to practice is not a religion — it is a political system.

Sharia law is a legal system that completely rejects the Constitution and the American form of government. Thus, there is absolutely no “separation of church and state” issue.

3,000 souls were murdered by Islamists in the name of their political religion on 11 September 2001. Tens of thousands of innocents have perished since then — killed in beheadings, stonings, executions, hangings, beatings, floggings, suicide bombings and more.

All were murdered in the name of a political system that adopts the guise of a religion.

But as with health care and the economy, President Obama doesn’t care what you or I think. Facts, logic, reason and history play no part in his “decision-making”. Only ideology matters with this particular breed of hard-left Democrats.

Read more:

• Right Wing News: Obama Defends Plan for Mosque Near Ground Zero — ‘Friends of Terror’ Attend White House Ramadan Dinner
• The Washington Post: Obama’s remarks about Ground Zero mosque: The transcript
• Salon.com: Democrats startlingly silent on “ground zero mosque”

Related posts:

1. Obama Defends Plan for Mosque Near Ground Zero — ‘Friends of Terror’ Attend White House Ramadan Dinner
2. Obama Changes Mosque Vote to “Present”
3. Obama mosque stance hurting, Gallup finds, as Americans disapprove of it and him
4. Obama scholar linked to ‘Ground Zero’ imam
5. Builders plan to boycott construction of mosque
6. Obama officials’ ties to Ground Zero imam
7. Franklin Graham Says Obama Was Born Muslim
8. Obama: “Muslim Call to Prayer One of the Prettiest Sounds on Earth”
9. Obama Sets Muslim Outreach for Indonesia Trip
10. Cained to the Ground