Here is an interesting article about an argument seldom raised in the debate around Park51. The author blames liberals for incriminating mosques by continuing (in their attempt to calm fears) to say that the Muslim Cultural Center is not a mosque. Excellent point indeed and I should add that Muslims do this all the time by saying things like: this woman is veiled but she's quite liberal and cool, or that man is very devout but he's not an extremist. These are not inconsequential semantic concessions. The veil in the first comment is thereby a source of trouble and closed-mindedness and devotion is understood necessarily as the sign of an extremist reading of religion. The fact that Park51 is not a mosque should not be the main argument in this debate, and making it the essence of the conversation will certainly mean that mosques bear the burden of proof that they are only innocent places of worship. This kind of Islam by exclusion strips the faith of its essence and its symbols and this will make any conversation about Islam a steep mountain to climb.