Cathedral vs. Mosque

Now the first thought I had after hearing about this was "well, at least the cathedral isn't being torn down. That might anger a few people, tearing down a centuries old church, a historical landmark of the highest degree.

Oh wait, I forgot to give you guys the story. Alright, here's the summation, based of the article in The Washington Times:

The population of Muslims in Cologne, Germany is on the rise, and theses followers of Muhammad want a decent place to worship. They want to build a mosque, a big one, like the one in Berlin. That is not the controversy. That little detail lies in the fact that the mosque would be built right next to the cathedral, within two miles of each other actually, pretty close when you think about it. And it is gonna be big. Seating capacity will be 2,000 and the minarets, the fun top parts of the mosque, are 170 feet each. That's pretty big.

They designers are basing the mosque off the one in Berlin, seen here:



The Islamic community has been crying out for a decent place of worship for the last 40 years, and this might be their chance to get out of their basements and move into the public

So why is this causing so much controversy? And why would the the political world care about it? Isn't this a matter of religion, not the State?
Ah, there's the rub. Religion and the State.
You can't have an official State religion, right? That would be mean to all the other religions. So the State should stay out of religious things, right? Well, how do you enforce religious equality while not getting involved with religion? Such is the situation in Germany and throughout the world. I offer not a solution here, but am simply stating a fact.
So what will come of this, and what does it show? Well, for one thing, it shows something that Hillaire Belloc wrote about in his The Great Heresies (I could be wrong about the title) is coming true: a warning of instability as Muslims take over Europe. It happens every time two cultures meet. One fights against the conquerors, and the other is left with two choices: assimilate into the culture, such as what happened with the Romans and Alexander the Great, or try to force the culture into the lives of the conquered, allowing no wiggle room.
What will happen? Could this be another step towards the destruction of Catholic Germany? Hopefully not, but who knows. Only time can tell.