The issue of "Church and State" is fundamental to the acceptance of the US Constitution.
Without it, democracy ceases to be. If one religion is allowed to dominate or to take precedence over another, then that is a theocracy as they have in other countries.

The reaction of those who are opposed to the construction of the Center could be classified by polling statistics as the "tyranny of the majority" which runs counter to protections in the Constitution. Their reactionary stance can't prevail under a democracy.
Most of the people who were polled as was stated by the Imam who wants to build the Center were those who just wanted the problem to go away without facing the issue.

There was plenty of evidence as has been shown above that religion has caused certain groups to demonize those who don't belong. Newt Gingrich is not new. The "No-Nothings"demonized Catholics in the early part of US history. The so-called "Christians" demonizedNative Americans and either exterminated them or put them on uninhabitable reservations. Slavery was given a biblical basis.

Freedom of religion, however, also requires freedom from religion in a viable democracy.

It doesn't impinge on my rights to reject religion to build this Muslim Center. I agree with Micheal Moore in that it ought probably to be built on so-called "Ground Zero" which is as stated above, a misnomer having to do with the center of a nuclear explosion. There is a chance of irony, here, though, if it ever comes out that the WTC was imploded by explosives. Although many have tried to debunk this idea, not enough information was provided to completely discount this idea. But that's a thread creep.