Looking at Islamic Center Debate, World Sees U.S.- By Thanassis Cambanis (The New York Times)

For more than two decades, Abdelhamid Shaari has been lobbying a succession of governments in Milan for permission to build a mosque for his congregants — any mosque at all, in any location. To Mr Shaari, the furor over the precise location of Park51, the proposed Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, looks like something to aspire to. “At least in America,” he says, “there’s a debate” ... read more