Charles Ellison
+ FollowGround Zero Mosque Debate: Can You Stay Out of This One, Fam?
As one report suggests that plans for the proposed mosque in lower Manhattan could be withdrawn in a few days, the raging political debate persists amidst midterm frenzy. Reports Shlomo Shamir in Haaretz:
[S]everal people familiar with the debate among New York’s Islamic activists now claim that the leaders are convinced abandoning the site is preferable to unleashing a wave of bitterness towards Muslims.
The New York Post is not sure about that as one major public source says full steam ahead:
Reports the Islamic community will abandon plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City were “completely incorrect,” property owner Sharif El-Gamal said Monday.
El-Gamal and Co. could have preempted a bit of this by simply engaging in public conversation when plans emerged. Some folks find it somewhat odd (and annoyingly sneaky) that the mosque is mostly quiet on the topic. As spiritual leaders, why not exercise a moral obligation towards transparency and open dialogue? Of course, we predicted the international repercussions of this domestic front firestorm, as a leading Hamas figure – according to Associated Press – weighs in:
Mahmoud al-Zahar said Muslims “have to build everywhere” so that followers can pray, just like Christians and Jews build their places of worship.
This is what happens when elected officials, including the Leader of the Free World, just can’t hold the verbal pee (so to speak) on raw emotional issues that didn’t ask for it. Religion is one of those perfect, timeless examples where this happens, historically resulting in some collective misfortune of humanity. This is why the Founding Fathers (for all their slaveholding, elitist and property-owning flaws) took great pains to emphasize a separation of church and state in Article XI of the Constitution.
On pure Constitutional merit and legal technicality, President Obama is correct:
“Muslims have … the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”
Still: is it appropriate for legislators to insert themselves in religious debate? Just when we thought wedge social issues were – at least for this cycle – things of a short-lived political past, both parties jump in it.
Initially, the President’s intention is rather plain: new global outreach. Send a signal that he is, indeed, all-good and less imperialistic. I may be ordering more Predator drone strikes, but I’m the most qualified to understand your pain, he might think for a fleeting moment.
Still, the political risks could be devastating. There is clear and present danger for Democrats in 2010, tied to a President momentarily off message and not laser focused on unemployment, foreclosures and a sputtering economy. The President himself is risking his re-election bid in 2012, potentially alienating White Republicans and Independents who may have found that perfect moment to drive the birther/Muslim heritage conspiracy home.
Or, the White House political team could have found an unsuspecting method to the madness, a way to play Republicans into open xenophobia into November. Here, both sides of the debate are gambling pretty big, Republicans no less dirty with yet another angle to their anti-everybody-else rhetoric. While they may find some short term gain in painting the President as “terrorist friendly,” they lose long term by dismissing every other voter of “no color” that doesn’t live in a rural town or sprawling suburb.
Ultimately, the election year conversation we need consists of questions like, when will folks get working again, how many homes have been saved and when will recovery take place. But, Washington just found a convenient way to drop that hot potato.
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3 Responses to Ground Zero Mosque Debate: Can You Stay Out of This One, Fam?
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Ronald Raygun says:
OK, this is America. If they want to build the mosque, let them build it. We shouldn't stop them. Just as once the mosque is built, we can open a shop selling bacon, pork chops, ham, sausage next door. And a hotel upstairs that rent by the hour. A strip club across the street. A liquor store on the other side. A halfway house and a homeless shelter in the same block. The good thing about freedom is that it goes both ways. But let them spend their money on the mosque first before we start building the neighboring establishments.
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Jamadagnii says:
I wouldn't be so quick in assuming that we should join forces with anyone and everyone who is anti-"white Republican." Somethings are a little more complicated, such as the "jihad" against the West, and our response to it. Obama's diplomatic pandering to Muslims and Islam only goes so far in developing good relations. And as long as we are still actively fighting Al Qaeda and home grown Islamic terrorists, there is a definite need to stay awake and aware.
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I wrote a song about this topic. Enjoy.
Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3HILoiHKg
Here are the lyrics:
Chorus
Build it next to 9/11, build next to 9/11, next to 9/11,
build next to 9/11, next to 9/11, build next to 9/11
I'm talking bout freedom, I'm talking bout Freedom -
Verse1
There was a team of cats that made a plane crash/
So yall wanna lump them all in the same batch/
Yall wanna act like every single one, without knowing one/
Is just another smoking gun,gun, gun, "blowww"/
Everybody mama but Obama wanna throw them out/
Constitution and bill or rights is what its All about/
I swear we learned a thing or two, don't let us fade back/
The American flag waves, so lets wave back/
Verse 2
Whenever its hardest times that were faced with/
you see the real side of a man or a nation/
We pride ourselves on freedom yall try to erase it/
You stick your feet so far in your mouth I can taste it/
So go ahead and sing land of the free/
Any more hypocrisy What kinda of land would it be/
If this is truly the land of opportunity/ religious Immunity/
It's a man that pulls the trigger, not the community/
Verse 3
Lets be real we all got hate up in the attic/
For the every second of the world trade madness/
But if your don't let em build up/ Don't let the building fill up/
lets take away some more freedoms while we at it/
Lets shut down a mosque, lets shut down a church/
Then let's pick with amendment we want to delete first/
Golly, this right here is a no brainer/
But Don't go Abort freedom with you own hang ups/