First American history lesson for the day: The first amendment to our nation’s Constitution includes the protection of the free exercise of religion.

My guess is that our founding fathers thought it would go well with the ‘pursuit of life, liberty and happiness’ concept. I’m also confident that they wanted all Americans to enjoy the freedom to practice their faith without persecution ‘ isn’t that why the Quakers came here?

Perhaps the founding fathers actually anticipated America in 2010, when declaring your faith is now equivalent to drawing battle lines in the sand.

Second American history lesson: Our nation was also founded on intolerance, ignorance and fear. So where do we stand now? We are a nation at war with our own principles.

No one wants to consider racial profiling as a national principle, but it’s a pastime that has plagued America since its beginning. We have a long and disturbing history of belittling, discriminating and excluding those whom we don’t understand. It is the same history that is now the cause of the controversy over Park 51, the Islamic Cultural Center to be built near the World Trade Center site.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, national feelings toward Islam have changed drastically. Rather than choosing to understand the varieties and complexities of Islam, a large majority of non-Muslim Americans have decided to place all who practice the religion under the category of anti-American or terrorist.

Surely I can understand initial anger, especially in regard to the feelings of those who lost loved ones on that day. However, respecting the departed should not entail disrespecting the living. Also, part of not letting the religious extremists succeed is by not becoming religious extremists ourselves. We should be willing to accept and respect the multitude of faiths that exist and the people in our nation who practice them.

As Americans, we need to remember that the fight for American freedom is for all those who live here. If we fight for freedom and the pursuit of life and liberty only for some, then we’re not fighting for those ideals at all.

As I watched the news last week, a woman who was part of the anti-mosque protest in Manhattan said during her interview, ‘I don’t have a problem with Muslims, but I think the Muslims who want to build this mosque are terrorists.’ Statements such as this result from narrow-mindedness created by prejudice and terror. Concepts and practices such as those stunt the development of the understanding necessary to regain the tolerance of Islam this country once enjoyed.

I worked in lower Manhattan during the summer and I watched the war of words explode as the proposed Park 51 became a national fixation. Posters, statements written in chalk on the sidewalk and protesters for and against the construction of the center turned the area into a minuscule war zone over nationalism and American traditionalism.

I saw statements such as ‘Support freedom of religion’ and ‘People fear what they don’t understand.’ I also noticed ‘Remember 09.11.01.’ As much as Americans may hate to admit it, this controversy only proves that intolerance, ignorance and fear ‘ the necessary evils that contributed to the founding and building of our nation ‘ will remain with us, inherent in American nature.

Out of all the statements I found written in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the building, the one which stood out the most said, ‘I thought this was America.’

This controversy is America. Welcome to the war zone.