(Thumbnail image: The Sydney Morning Herald)

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

Dueling protests in New York over plans for a proposed mosque and community center near Ground Zero.  Opponents say it’s an issue of sensitivity to the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks — but many in the international press are portraying the debate as a litmus test for American tolerance — or intolerance — of Islam.

A reporter for Canada’s CTV suggests there’s irony in the growing debate.

“Indeed a project that was supposed to foster a better understanding of Islam seems to have done just the opposite — raised anti-Muslim tensions all across the country, and just weeks before Americans mark another anniversary of September 11. ... It’s not about religious freedom, they say. It’s about sensitivity. And it doesn’t matter that there’s already another mosque in the neighborhood. They simply don’t want it.”

In The Sydney Morning Herald, one writer wonders whether opposition to the mosque is just another sign of global Islamophobia — coming on the heels of high-profile moves aimed at Muslims in other countries.

“Muslims worry that the campaign has become caught up in the same racially tinged clash-of-civilisations campaigns to ban Muslim women in France from wearing Islamic garb or Muslims in Switzerland to build minarets on their houses of worship.”

But there’s disagreement over what’s the REAL issue behind the controversy. A CBS reporter says that’s simple — it’s all about the location.

REPORTER: “Ironically the location has been used as a mosque for months, while the new building would not even be visible from Ground Zero. Proximity is what’s an issue here. While the proposed Islamic cultural center is 2 1/2 blocks away from where the Twin Towers fell, World Trade Center 7, which also fell and is built is right here.”

In fact, the location has become such a heated topic of debate the Associated Press is advising reporters NOT to refer to the community center as the “Ground Zero mosque” but rather the “mosque NEAR Ground Zero.”

But an Islamic Studies professor tells Fox News — for the mosque’s critics, it isn’t about the wording.

AKBAR AHMED: "The very fact that there's this immense controversy building up around this mosque so near Ground Zero simply means that Muslim leaders don't fully understand the sensitivities of what happened on 9/11."

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