During a White House dinner in commemoration of the start of Ramadan, a religious month for Muslims, which was on Friday, Aug. 13, President Obama mentioned that he is in favor of building a mosque and an Islamic religious center two city blocks from Ground Zero.

According to CNN, he doesn’t regret saying it. Also, according to a CNN poll, only 30 percent of the participants say that they agree with Obama in the construction of the mosque and religious center for Muslims.

I am one of those 30 percent and it’s not a matter of opinion but of our constitutional rights.

Anyone who knows the United States Constitution knows that every citizen has the freedom to practice any religion, and that includes the privilege to build any necessary buildings in order to practice it in.

Obama said, “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our founders must endure.”

He is right. Yes, about 2,700 people died during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and Yes it may or may not be too soon, but every person has a constitutional right to have a chance to practice any religion.

People are being cautious about the mosque being built because it is close to the former World Trade Center, and it just so happens that the killers/bombers were Muslim. But, at the same time, not all Muslims are killers, and not all Muslims are out to get Americans.

The problem is that there are groups of people that are like Al Qaeda, the group who carried out the 2001 attacks, who are out to destroy the United States

What I’m trying to get at is that, even though certain criminals commit a crime, and they are of one race, religion, gender, or age, doesn’t mean that the others of that specific group deserve their privileges be taken away from them.

If that was the case, I do believe no one wouldn’t be able to do anything that they are doing as of this second, because everyone would be fighting to not let the others do what they want to because someone in their same group did something bad. But that isn’t the case. So that isn’t fair that Muslims in Manhattan is getting their rights taken away by not being able to have a place of worship in their neighborhood/area.

People come to the United States for a better opportunity, and to have the freedoms Americans get, without being any problems. But, for the Muslims in Manhattan, they aren’t getting what they came here for, and they are probably mad about that, which is sad.

For the people who believe there shouldn’t build a mosque near ground zero, ask yourself this question: “Is it fair for innocent people to get penalized for something another person did?” and “what if that innocent person is you?’