The Ground Zero Mosque

I think the thing that I hate most about the right-wing of today is that they appeal to the worst of all of us. The idea to tinker with the 14th Amendment caters to xenophobia, while the controversy surrounding the mosque at Ground Zero is out and out religious bigotry, that has nothing to do with the ideals or values of America. It disgusts me.

The issue is a simple one: a Muslim organization owns a building in lower Manhattan. They want to build an Islamic cultural center. It happens to be a few blocks away from the former site of the World Trade Center. A commission has ruled that the building has no historical significance, so the owner has every right to tear it down and build whatever he wants. But of course in today's America things aren't so simple. The rabid right has seized on this and made a case out of it, a case that has no legitimacy whatsoever.

Let's look at the arguments against. For one thing, it's not a mosque, it's a community center. Number two, the men who flew the planes into the World Trade Center may have been Muslim, but they were an extreme fringe. It would be like saying the Klan represented all Protestants. In any event, we are not at war with Islam. Three, it is not at Ground Zero, it is a few blocks away. How far is far enough? Ten blocks? A mile? Ten? It should be noted that the "hallowed ground" surrounding Ground Zero contains a strip club.

The rhetoric on this has reached insane and bigoted heights. There are those who flatly state that any mosque is anti-American (believe it or not, some have called for the denial of any mosque to be built, anywhere). Newt Gingrich, who may be off on a quixotic race for the presidency, played the Nazi card and said that Nazis wouldn't be allowed to build anything near the Holocaust museum. That statement is offensive and wrong on many levels. For one thing, Nazis (or more correctly, neo-Nazis) would be able to build anything they like, as long as they owned the land. More importantly, to equate the entire nation of Islam to the Nazis is head-spinningly indecent. Again the right-wing, which professes to worship the Constitution and believe in freedom, is completely blind to it when they smell blood in the water.

I have also read the argument that we shouldn't have mosques near Ground Zero because you won't find temples in Mecca. Well, duh. Mecca, it should be pointed out, is not in the United States. Are these idiots saying we should adopt the religious freedoms of Saudi Arabia? The mind reels.

Many arguing against it are the families of 9/11 victims. I certainly feel for them, but there anger is misplaced. No one involved with this community center has anything to do with the men who destroyed those buildings. Moreover, we can not let a small group dictate what is built on the lower tip of Manhattan, especially when it is a clear violation of the First Amendment.

There have been some heroes on this, particularly New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose speech on the issue rang clear. President Obama was also forceful on the issue, at least until his handlers got a hold of him and he backed off. Amazingly, the Anti-Defamation League, which should know better, came out against it, and Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, his eyes on the polls in a bitterly-fought re-election campaign, also took the coward's way.

We all have to relax and acknowledge that Islam is a religion, and it is not our enemy.