Yesterday, in New York, a city planning commission voted unanimously to remove the last legal obstacle to the construction of a mosque and Islamic center, two blocks from 9-11 ground zero, the site of the World Trade Center. The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, responded to the activists, commentators and politicians, whom have dug deep into the tool box of destructive bigotry, and have used every instrument they could find, (fear, hate, threats of violence) to try to block the construction. In remarks delivered on Governor's Island, the mayor reminded the critics of the mosque, exactly what 9-11 was about, and what the United States of America is about, and what the loss of the lives of the three thousand plus was about.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

"Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values - and play into our enemies' hands - if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists - and we should not stand for that. -- The attack was an act of war, and our first responders defended not only our city, but 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 ... Political controversies come and go, but our values and our traditions endure, and there is no neighborhood in this city that is off-limits to God's love and mercy".

Link to Mayor Bloomberg's full speech published on HuffPost by the Mayor's office: Here.