At the sharp end of the debate over so-called 'Ground Zero Mosque'
NEW YORK:
You know an issue is really sensitive when there is an argument about the most basics terms used.
To its opponents, it is the planned "Mosque at Ground Zero".
Others say it is not a mosque, it is an Islamic cultural centre, and it is not located where the planes crashed into the Twin Towers.
51 Park Place isn't at Ground Zero, if by that you mean the exact spot, but it is two blocks or streets away, a short three or four minute stroll from the epicentre of the attack, now a busy building site for a memorial and office blocks.
Ground Zero is easily visible from the end of Park Place.
The plans are for an Islamic Cultural Centre including a kindergarten, a crèche, a theatre and a gym.
The imam in charge says that the 800 square foot "prayer space" would not qualify, under Koranic rules, as a mosque.
I am not qualified to judge, but if the phrase mosque conjures up images of domes and minarets and makes you think of the or then the word has misled you.
The New York centre will be in what used to be the Burlington Coat Factory, at the moment fronted with crumbling false columns in a terrace row, with a bar called the Dakota Grill on one side and a big organic super market-cum-café on the other.
It is not a particularly salubrious area - there is a strip club in the next street.
But to those who object that is not the point.
Jim Riches, lost his son Jimmy, a firefighter, in the attack on 11 September 2001.
He says it is something that you never, ever get over, that never, ever fades. Every family holiday, every birthday, every Christmas Jim is missing.
A retired firefighter himself, his lungs damaged by the detritus released in the aftermath of the buildings' collapse, he led the search for bodies and talks with grim bluntness of the horrible discoveries he made.
I mentioned to him that the area where the centre is to be built did not feel like hallowed ground.
He replied: "It is hallowed ground to us. There are porn shops and other things down there, but they didn't murder my son. Muslims murdered my son. And that is why I don't want the mosque there.
"They were cheering in the streets of Cairo, Baghdad, all through the Middle East, they were cheering the murder of my son that day.
"All we are asking is, practice your religion, but just move it a little bit further away."
He says he is not a bigot and this is not about religious freedom.
"All Muslims are not to blame, just like all Japanese are not to blame for Pearl Harbour, but you wouldn't put a Japanese centre at Pearl Harbour.
"I would say they promised to come back after '93 and they did, they promised to come back after 2001, I bet you it will be through that mosque if they do."
So he thinks the mosque is not just offensive but a threat? Definitely.
"Do I think the mosque is a threat? That's where all the other plots were hatched - in a mosque. You'd have to be a moron not to think that.
"I am not saying all mosques are bad and all Muslims are mad, anything is possible, I am just saying they should move it a little further away."
US politicians like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have made their support for relatives like Mr Riches very clear.
Some worry that those in a position of responsibility draw no clear delineation between the few Muslims who support such attacks and the vast majority who do not.
Some online sites pretty much .
The atmosphere in America may be changing towards Muslims, seeming worse than even in the aftermath of 9/11.
A taxi driver was attacked in New York, explicitly because he was a Muslim. There was an arson attack on a building work to extend a mosque in Tennessee - to which one said "How many times do the people of Murfreesboro, TN have to tell them? Build your mosque somewhere else".
In alarmed response various Muslim groups have been making their own .
Talat Hamdani fears what the politicians are doing and is angry with them because her son also died in the Twin Towers. He was, and she is, a Muslim.
"They have done a grave injustice to the nation, a grave injustice, because they have sown the seed of suspicion and ignited the flames of racism, and you see the nation is getting engulfed in it.
"The cab driver? It was lynching. I've got hate mail.
"This is getting very serious and if appropriate steps are not taken it is going to be disastrous for the nation."
I ask if she understands that some people feel it is insensitive to build the centre there as the attack was carried out by Muslims.
"It was carried out by terrorists who did it in the name of Islam. But no faith preaches to kill and there are major events in history where other faith based groups have carried out attacks.
"To hold the American Muslim groups responsible, and Muslims all over the world - but I am more concerned about my identity as an American Muslim - to scapegoat us, is not fair.
"My son died, other Muslims died, we mourn also, to hold us responsible because our faith is the same, that's wrong."
She believes that to stop the building would be to give in to oppression and it is now a matter of civil rights.
With the anniversary of 9/11 next week the debate is likely to grow more heated.
I’m Mark Mardell, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
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