Bloomberg’s Common Sense on WTC Area Mosque
I will admit, I’ve been a little befuddled as to the drama going on over the planned mosque a few blocks from where the World Trade Center once was. Not because I don’t get why people feel uncomfortable with it, but because of the exact reasons that Michael Bloomberg explains here:
The simple fact is this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship.”The government has no right whatsoever to deny that right – and if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question – should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?”
Regardless of how you feel about this, its when you come across something that you personally disagree with, that your true commitment to the fundamental principles that underlie our country show themselves.
You do not truly believe in free speech unless you do not move to bar those who say things you deem crazy from espousing their beliefs freely, and you do not believe in property rights and religious freedom unless you allow these people to do with their private property what they wish to do with it, and practice whatever religion they wish to practice.
If I were these people, I certainly wouldn’t bring this firestorm onto myself… building a mosque there is unnecessarily contentious. But its absurd to treat their proposal as legally different just because people are offended with the idea.
On a personal note… and I initially left this out but am adding it now… a part of me feels uncomfortable about the idea as well. I’m not sure if this is caused because I am uncomfortable with the idea of a mosque there, or because of the drama, and potential danger, that could come about (or some other reason). But I do know that I’m not going to toss away my commitment to equal justice under law just because I don’t feel comfortable with the idea, or symbolism, or whatever subjective reasoning anyone is giving.
Bloomberg’s speech, which I sampled from above, on this is really quite good.
Read the rest of it at the Wall Street Journal…
About Solomon Kleinsmith
I started this site in the summer of 2010, really just as a hobby at first. But I'm pretty ambitious, and between being able to recruit some great bloggers to join the team here, putting a ton of work into the site and attracting a lot of traffic through Twitter, we've grown very fast for a young blog with next to no budget.
- Web |
- More Posts (1401)
Finally, a little sanity in this debate.
This guy's post (found by the trackback a few comments up) is a pretty thorough review of the subject:
http://notfrisco2.com/leones/?p=5389
I’m not pretending that I have any real reasons to be against having this center where its at. Its just a gut thing. I’m 150% against any legal effort to stop it, and from what I’ve seen so far, I think it will be a generally good thing for the city… and I thought this was pretty clear from what I said.
I’m just being brutally honest that there is some part of me, some sort of gut reaction, that is uncomfortable with it.
Look Jack(ass), I don’t control my gut reaction. I’m not claiming its ‘moderate’ to have it, it was a personal note. I think I made this perfectly clear, and came out as unequivocally in support of Bloombergs’ statements as I think I could.
You pretending you know the source of me being uncomfortable with this is utter bullshit. It being a gut reaction, I can’t even be sure myself. My guess is that I pick my battles carefully, and this doesn’t seem like one that helps anyone, much less the future success and security of the community center, assuming it does go forward as planned. If I were at the head of this project, I’d care much more about that than winning this battle on principle (even though I agree with it on principle).
We’re ALL susceptible to emotional appeal. If you don’t think you are, you’re head is in an even worse place than in the sand.
So get your head out of you know where and put your eye on the ball. We’re on the same damn team on this.
70% of the public are apposed to building the mosque on this site. So, like the tone deaf genius Obama is he goes and gives it his blessing. Idiot.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/13/obama.islamic.center.support/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1
So Obama is for amnesty and he’s for a mosque at ground zero now and his attorney general has called us a nation of cowards regarding race. Oh, and the economy is in the crapper, unemployment is high, and the summer of recovery is anything but.
Still think Obama is gonna get re-elected?
If you say yes, you’re a koolaid drinker. The Reps are gonna murder him in any debate. What the hell is he gonna run on to get re-elected? Health care? I think not.
Oh, at this rate Iran will have the bomb in 3 months.
Hey Jack, if Sarah Palin says 1+1=2 does that mean you automatically oppose it? It does if you’re a koolaid drinker.
Palin is an idiot, but even an idiot recognizes that if you want to promote cultural harmony, don’t plant an islamic flag on top of a mass murder scene done in its name.
If they really want to promote harmony, they would move the mosque and show respect to the people they want to build a relationship with. This mosque has brought nothing but dis-harmony, which they claim is not their goal.
Also, did you notice the name of the new Islamic center? Its called Cordoba House. Cordoba was the name of the Spanish city that the Muslims conquered and set up as the capitol of their European Caliphate.
Its the equivalent of the US government bulldozing an Indian Reservation, then building a museum dedicated to Andrew jackson, and renaming it “Custer’s Revenge”.
If you read history, you’ll notice that Muslims like to build mosques and monuments on conquered territories.
So is it legal for them to do it? Absolutely.
Is it right? Hell no and its extremely insensitive. But they don’t really give a crap, because making friends isn’t really their goal, because if it was, they’d just build it somewhere else. They just want to build their trophy.
Drop the hyperbole Paul.
I said I *think* Obama beats Romney heads up, unless we get a game changer or things get worse. This is an educated guess.
I don’t have a feel on what would happen if it were Huckabee, much less unknowns like Thune, Christie, Pawlenty or a whole slew of other potentials.
This is a analysis, not my personal opinion of who *should* win. If the election were tomorrow, I probably would write in Bloomberg as a protest vote.
One point that is often omitted in this controversy is how wonderful the US Islamic religious community is on the war on homegrown terror. A well-integrated Islamic community is a good source of information to the government. This isn't the case in the UK due to the separation of the Muslim community.