I suppose someone out there is wondering why, given my openness about being an American Muslim, the debates surrounding the building of a mosque near ground zero haven’t been brought up in this space.

The thing is, I think most of you know where I would stand on this issue.

The other thing is, I am, frankly, exhausted at the prospect of writing yet another iteration of:

“I’m just a Muslim girl with Pakistani-American parents, standing in front of a relatively secular nation asking it to love her.”

If you’ve not seen Notting Hill, that last line was very clever.  Trust me.

It occurred to me the other day that…

Someone out there who is reading this blog is incensed by the idea of a mosque being built NEAR ground zero.

They are also incensed by the idea that there are mosques being built in Los Angeles, Tennessee, or anywhere in our country.

This anger is so real, in fact, that when the President defends the rights of all Americans to build places of worship wherever they are legally allowed to do so, the accusation of him being “out of touch” with the American people is given full credibility and attention.

They are also so incensed that they’ve imagined that every Friday, every single Muslim in the whole world gets together on some version of terrorist Skype and we formulate plans for symbolic world domination.  Like, we all sit around on Friday night, by the dim light of our burning American flags, coming up with names for a mosque that we plan to build on ground zero… I know!! Let’s call it Cordoba after the place where we got our butts kicked by the Christians back in the 13th century… that’ll teach them.

You should have been there, I tell you, it was just amazing how ALL ONE BILLION OF US agreed on this in just a matter of minutes!!

Look.  Today, instead of my proselytizing about freedom, humanistic ideals and interfaith understanding, I’d like to offer an invitation.

I invite this incensed someone to state their opinion in a respectful and concise manner.

I would like you to tell me why, as your fellow American, I am not allowed to build a place a worship wherever I am legally able to do so.

I also ask readers to treat this commenter with respect if you choose to engage in a discussion, and to keep in mind that no person is defined by a single opinion.  In other words, please don’t use words like “stupid” or “dumb.”

I also invite you to twitter or Facebook this post, so that the entire Internet can come here and respectfully explain to me exactly why a Muslim American should have less rights than a non-Muslim American.

I offer this invitation because I sincerely would like to know the rationale.

And I would like them to tell me to my virtual face.

I won’t even try to change their minds.  Because, honestly, I don’t think it’s possible.

I’d just like to know what I’m up against.