Stretched

Analogies are a great means of communication, but often they can be stretched so thin that they seem like a gimmick.  Forced.  Other times, they just don't work.  Or they hover on the verge of working, but are problematic. 

The analogy, currently making the rounds, of the Ground Zero mosque/Islamic center to the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz is one of the latter.  For one thing, the camp was not operated under the auspices of the Catholic Church or anyone claiming the mantle of the Church (far from it).  For another, well,

... On that site is Oswiecim, where a camp was used to detain and kill Poles, and which has become a symbol of Polish martyrdom for the nation. It is also the site of an extermination camp where Nazi Germany killed, according to Yehuda Bauer of Hebrew University, about 1.35 million Jews, and which has become the most preeminent symbol of the Holocaust. As [Emanuel] Tanay writes, "The Carmelite convent was established in Oswiecim, a proper place for Polish nuns. The trouble is that Auschwitz, a death camp for Jews, existed at the same location."

So the analogy makes me just a bit uncomfortable, because Muslims were not the targeted victims of the 9-11 terrorists, nor is Ground Zero a site of significance to the Islamic (or any other specific) faith.  Still, William McGurn points out important parallels in this Wall St. Journal op-ed.

For Jews, Auschwitz is a symbol of the Shoah, and the presence of a convent looked like an effort to Christianize a place of Jewish suffering. Suspicions were further aroused by a fundraising brochure from an outside Catholic group, which referred to the convent as a "guarantee of the conversion of strayed brothers."

And of course, in his conclusion.

Without doubt Pope John Paul II did not share the more malevolent interpretations attached to the presence of the Carmelites at Auschwitz. By asking the nuns to withdraw, he didn't concede them either. What he did was recognize that having the right to do something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

This metaphor, on the other hand, is a home run (and, as far as I can tell, entirely original).  As is the rest of the post.  I don't want to spoil the impact.  Read it for yourself.