It bothers me that the whacko fringe draws attention away from legitimate worries about Islamic extremism.

Frankly, I’m not a fan of the idea of siting an Islamic center in a building that was damaged during 9/11. I’m not foaming at the mouth about it, and I have a problem with the fact that the minority of people who are foaming at the mouth about it tend to get the rest of us tarred with the same brush.

I absolutely agree that the organizers have the right to build the center wherever they please. However, having the right to build Park51 doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate to build Park51. Comparing the uproar over Park51 to the 1980s protests over a convent near Auschwitz is an imperfect parallel, and a recent International Affairs Review article does make some compelling arguments against linking the two, but choosing to build an Islamic center in a location damanged during a religious-inspired act of terror in spite of substantial opposition by the public at large concerns me.

Unfortunately, Ms. Gellar’s apparent desire to turn honest opposition into some sort of American version of a “Palestinian Day of Rage” makes it difficult for me to raise objections without being labeled a nut.

Similarly, Gellar’s claims of secret Arabic messages in the Quran tends to deligitimize genuine concerns over both Quranic justification for extremist Islamic practices and the tendency of many in the Middle East to say one thing in English and another in their native language. If I remember correctly, the latter was a favorite tactic of Yasser Arafat’s, while the former raises its head with alarming frequency. A report earlier this week from the UK of a Muslim cleric’s claim that rape is impossible within marriage highlights the need to rebut bad interpretations of the Quran through scholarship, not fearmongering.

I worry though, that there’s a temptation to focus too much on the fringe opposition, while ignoring, glossing over, or rationalizing away the true extremism against which the whacko fringe rails. The Washington Post spikes a “Non Sequitur” cartoon for fear of offending Muslim sensibilities and denounces Israel for building homes in its own capital city, but labels criticism of Park51 as racist and intolerant.

Sadly, even a casual review of recent LGF topics gives me pause to think. I sometimes wish we’d spend even half as much time on the threats of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Al Qaeda’s various incarnations, and Hamas as we do on the dangers of Pam Gellar, Robert Stacy McCain, and Glenn Beck.