Dorothy Rabinowitz, Liberal Piety and the Memory of 9/11:
In the plan for an Islamic center and mosque some 15 stories high to be built near Ground Zero, the full force of politically correct piety is on display along with the usual unyielding assault on all dissenters. The project has aroused intense opposition from New Yorkers and Americans across the country. It has also elicited remarkable streams of oratory from New York's political leaders, including Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
"What are we all about if not religious freedom?" a fiery Mr. Cuomo asked early in this drama. Mr. Cuomo, running for governor, has since had less to say.
Messrs. Cuomo and Bloomberg need to be reminded that one cannot derive a 'freedom of unlimited construction' from freedom of religion. Yes, we Americans are for freedom of religion. It is enshrined in our Constitution in the very first clause of the very first Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Those Muslims who are U. S. citizens enjoy the right to the free exercise of their religion. But that is not to say that they can do anything anywhere or build anything anywhere. Or do they have special rights and privileges not granted to Jews and Christians and Buddhists? Is one of these rights the right to offend with impunity the majority of the citizens of a country that is the most tolerant that has ever existed? Correct me if I am wrong, but would the Islamic Republic of Iran tolerate the building of a huge synagogue in Teheran? Is there perhaps a double-standard here?
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser—devout Muslim, physician, former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy—says there is every reason to investigate the center's funding under the circumstances. Of the mosque so near the site of the 9/11 attacks, he notes "It will certainly be seen as a victory for political Islam."
Exactly right. You are very naive if you assume that being conciliatory toward a person or group of persons will in every case cause that person or group to be conciliatory in return. Not so! There are people who take conciliation and tolerance and respect for diversity as signs of weakness. These people are only emboldened in their aggressiveness by your broadmindedness. It is therefore folly to be too conciliatory. Jasser is right: a mosque near Ground Zero will be taken as a victory for political Islam. It will embolden Islamists worldwide. It may even contribute to there being more Islamo-terrorist attacks in the U.S. and in the West generally.
One of the problems with liberals is their diversity fetish. It is on clear display in Thomas Friedman's recent NYT commentary on the GZM debate. He thinks that blocking construction amounts to resistance to diversity! A slap in the face of openness and inclusion! What liberals like him can't understand is that diversity, though admittedly a value, is not an absolute value: there are competing values.
It looks as if the mosque will be built. Well, if it helps defeat the Left in Novermber, then it will have served a worthwhile purpose.