Last month a right-wing group threatened the MTA with a lawsuit in order to get their ad against the "Ground Zero" mosque onto city buses. Now the ACLU and NYCLU have chimed in with their own ad, seen here, supporting the Islamic community center proposed for Park Place. The ad will start appearing on buses on September 20th. Last month, the ACLU and NYCLU joined more than 100 groups in forming New York Neighbors for American Values, a coalition "devoted to the core American values of religious freedom, diversity, and equality that has supported the right of the community center to be built in its proposed location." The group will be holding a vigil tonight near Park51, on the eve of the planned 9/11 protest outside the site of the proposed mosque.
Meanwhile, President Obama responded to questions about the mosque during a press conference today. "We are not at war against Islam, we are at war against a terrorist organization," said Obama, reminding everyone that U.S. Muslim soldiers are currently fighting in Afghanistan. "If you can build a church on the site, if you can build a synagogue on the site, if you can build a Hindu temple on the site, then you can build a mosque on the site," Obama added, apparently failing to grasp that his faith in his fellow Americans' receptivity to reason is completely unfounded.
