Sometimes the most scalding of hot-button issues can be solved with a little bit of cold water… Sometimes the most scalding of hot-button issues can be solved with a little bit of cold water and cool heads.

The planned Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York has attracted feverish attention, with vehement criticisms and equally vehement defenses. But while voices have labeled the affair everything from an attempt to build a “victory mosque” to a “First Amendment crisis,” the involved parties would be far better off sitting down and reaching a compromise.

Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the project, has described the cultural center as a way to promote understanding and better relations between American Muslims and non-Muslims, saying, “The fact that there has been this misunderstanding shows the need for the project.” Critics have found the defenses of the project to be dubious. Conservative writer James Pinkerton, amongst others, labeled the project an example of “Islamic Triumphalism.” The Heritage Foundation’s Conn Carroll, conversely, labeled it a publicity stunt designed to attract funding from wealthy Muslims. I’m disinclined to believe that Rauf did not think that there would be massive public reticence about the project, nor do I believe him to be secretly supporting Islamic terrorism, as some have hinted.

Even if we take Rauf at his word, we have ample reason to encourage him to change his plans. Simply put, the goal of getting public approval for the project is unattainable. Sixty-eight percent of Americans, 61 percent of the state’s residents, and a majority of the city’s residents oppose the project, while just 29 percent of Americans support it, according to CNN. It’s not a partisan wedge issue, either: Republicans, Democrats and Independents all oppose the project. A variety of figures, including American University’s Islamic Culture Studies chair Akbar Ahmed and the Anti-Defamation League, have voiced opposition to the project, appealing to Rauf’s group to consider the feelings of the families of 9/11 victims and the nation.

One need only imagine the response of Bosnian Muslims to a hypothetical Serbian Orthodox Church Cultural Center in Srebrenica, the site of a massacre of Bosnians, or a hypothetical Japanese cultural center in Nanjing, China.

Yes, there would be public outcry, and whether or not you agree with it, you should at least not dismiss opposition as bigotry. Such denunciations are insensitive and irresponsible, as they essentially call a majority of New Yorkers and the families of 9/11 victims bigots, in spite of the fact that they are not advocating a ban on Islamic cultural centers. On the contrary, many are fully supportive of an Islamic cultural center, they merely ask that it be built somewhere else. These people are not bigots any more than Bosnian Muslims or Chinese citizens would be for opposing a similarly ill-conceived project.

The religion of Islam isn’t responsible for 9/11 any more than the Serbian Orthodox Church is responsible for the killings in Srebrenica. And American Muslims aren’t responsible for the attacks anymore than Japanese-Americans were responsible for Pearl Harbor or the atrocities committed in China. But that’s not the issue. When a Carmelite nun project near Auschwitz was met with resistance by Jewish groups, the Pope did not respond by calling the families of Holocaust victims bigots for their opposition — rather, he asked them to move the project. The project wasn’t ignoble, it was simply ill-conceived. Reasonable people reached a reasonable conclusion: It simply wasn’t the right place.

Critics, too, should be reasonable. Rauf has been on record stating some controversial views, calling the United States an “accessory to the crime that happened [on 9/11].” Such statements are insensitive but do not make him a supporter of terrorism anymore than Pat Robertson’s similarly insensitive statements following multiple disasters make him fans of earthquakes or tsunamis.

We as a country should welcome gestures that promote productive interfaith dialogue and relations. If Rauf wants to be part of that dialogue, he should do more listening and less talking, respect the wishes of New Yorkers and the nation, and choose a different location.

E-mail Steve at [email protected].