Disclaimer: This past summer, I watched two full seasons of The West Wing. As a result, I may frequently wax poetic and exhibit hopeless idealism. I may also allude to said show. Consider yourself warned.

While I was consuming copious amounts of Aaron Sorkin’s soaring oratory, Americans were becoming increasingly polarized over Park51, a proposed Muslim community center with a gym, convention center and prayer space to be built two blocks from Ground Zero. Proponents argue that Muslims, like all others, have a right to free worship; opponents, while not disputing this, contend that the “mosque” (a descriptor only partially accurate) should be built elsewhere out of sensitivity to the victims’ families.

I understand that argument. Just because you have a right to do something doesn’t mean you should. I get that to the casual observer, it looks like the same people who knocked down the Twin Towers are building a monument to radical Islam dangerously near those sacred, still-haunted ruins.

But this mosque absolutely should be built. The casual observer is wrong: the people who want to build this community center are not the same people who knocked down the World Trade Center. They practice a brand of Islam that isn’t just different from that espoused by Islamic extremists, it’s antithetical.

There’s a nice episode of The West Wing (told you it was coming) in which a White House staffer, while discussing terrorists with a group of high school students, tells them, “You want to get these people right where it hurts? Keep accepting more than one idea.” The line presents a simplified definition of pluralism (which is more about engaging multiple ideas than necessarily accepting them as valid), but the heart of the argument rings true.

Religious extremists like al-Qaeda seek to eradicate any faith except radical Islam. They hate many things, but foremost among them is religious pluralism – the coexistence and active engagement of diverse religious perspectives with one another. Park51’s leaders exemplify religious pluralism. With a board of directors composed of Christians, Jews and Muslims, as well as a commitment to interfaith dialogue, this project constitutes an outrage to everything extremists hold true.

Park51 is working to foster the attitudes that will make religious extremism obsolete. In short, it’s devoted to making sure something like 9/11 never happens again. I can’t imagine a better way to honor the people who died on that hallowed ground than to build this center. I’m saddened that the project upsets victims’ families; I’m hopeful that if they understood the purpose of it, they’d feel otherwise.

Let Park51 build this community center. Let terrorists argue that their brand of Islam is conquering American sacred ground. We know they’re wrong, and that’s what counts. When we measure our actions by how terrorists will spin them, they’ve won. Constructing this community center shows that, despite threats to our way of life, we have not relinquished the values of religious tolerance and pluralism that drive terrorists everywhere crazy. And that, my friends, is the ultimate slap in the face of the religious extremist.

Hana Suckstorff is a Weinberg senior. She can be reached at [email protected].