Governments do break laws, but they shouldn’t. And when they do, it’s up to the people to protest else the foundation of the country can be eroded. Well a lot of Americans, Muslim or otherwise, cared about that issue because while the Islamic center wasn’t a big deal, the **principle **is very important: religious minorities have the same rights as others, despite the idea being unpopular. As long as it’s done legally, and no one is being harmed, the opinions of the majority cannot be imposed on religious minorities. If you let things like this slide, it can turn into state sponsored persecution of minorities.
I disagree with you about the European incidents. Many people supported Muslims’ right to wear religious clothing and erect minarets. You’re lumping the supposed failures of secularism with political, religious and social xenophobia. Secularism can’t prevent people from being wary of outsiders. People will be people. Similarly, religion isn’t to blame for the fanatics. However, even in those (European) countries, Muslims can live in relative peace, otherwise they would be emigrating en mass, which means that secular forms of governments are succeeding (relatively speaking) in what separates them from religious forms of governments: protecting the religious freedom of the minority. It’s not perfect, I agree, but it’s better than countries that are overtly religious where minorities are persecuted. Jews aren’t even allowed in Saudi Arabia. Does that seem fair to you?
I agree that the Turkish protestors are fragmented but from what I’ve read the protests began about the park but others have joined because of the political undermining of the system.