"And if the imam and the Muslim leadership in that community is so intent on building bridges, then they should voluntarily move the mosque away from ground zero and move it whether it's uptown or somewhere else, but move it away from that area, the same as the pope directed the Carmelite nuns to move a convent away from Auschwitz"
About this Quote
The Auschwitz analogy is doing heavy emotional labor. By invoking the pope and the Carmelite convent, King borrows the moral authority of Holocaust memory to frame a contemporary zoning dispute as a matter of sacred respect. It’s a potent rhetorical shortcut: Auschwitz is the global shorthand for atrocity, so any comparison instantly raises the stakes and pressures dissenters into looking callous. But the analogy also smuggles in a controversial equivalence: it implies that Muslim presence near Ground Zero is akin to an affront at a genocide site, sliding from “sensitivity” into insinuation.
Context matters. In the post-9/11 climate, “Ground Zero” wasn’t just a location; it was a national altar. King, a politician fluent in security politics, taps that sanctified space to redraw the boundaries of belonging: Muslims can participate, but only at a distance, only after performing contrition. The subtext is less about geography than about who gets to claim America’s grief without being treated as a suspect.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
King, Peter. (2026, January 17). And if the imam and the Muslim leadership in that community is so intent on building bridges, then they should voluntarily move the mosque away from ground zero and move it whether it's uptown or somewhere else, but move it away from that area, the same as the pope directed the Carmelite nuns to move a convent away from Auschwitz. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-if-the-imam-and-the-muslim-leadership-in-that-57790/
Chicago Style
King, Peter. "And if the imam and the Muslim leadership in that community is so intent on building bridges, then they should voluntarily move the mosque away from ground zero and move it whether it's uptown or somewhere else, but move it away from that area, the same as the pope directed the Carmelite nuns to move a convent away from Auschwitz." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-if-the-imam-and-the-muslim-leadership-in-that-57790/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"And if the imam and the Muslim leadership in that community is so intent on building bridges, then they should voluntarily move the mosque away from ground zero and move it whether it's uptown or somewhere else, but move it away from that area, the same as the pope directed the Carmelite nuns to move a convent away from Auschwitz." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-if-the-imam-and-the-muslim-leadership-in-that-57790/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
