Former Democratic New York City mayor Ed Koch tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that he supports the legal right to build mosque near Ground Zero but believes the mosque is “insensitive” to 9/11 survivors and their families.

In a phone interview this afternoon, Koch said:  “From the very inception of this controversy, I have said that every religious institution is to be treated equally. And if a church or a synagogue could be situated on that plot of land, then a mosque can as well. I understand the anger of the survivors and the relatives of those who died, but there is a United States Constitution, which guarantees equality for all religions.” Koch cited the historical intolerance against Catholics and Jews in the United States.