Are the Freedoms Guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution Only For a Certain Few?
The furor over the building of a community center in Lower Manhattan has been leading news reports for the past week. Never mind that the proposed building is not a Mosque… it’s an Islamic cultural center which, although it would include a mosque for prayer, it would be 15 stories tall with a swimming pool, an auditorium and other amenities. The center would be more like a YMCA than a traditional house of worship. Also never mind that the proposed building is 2 blocks away and around the corner from the site of the world trade center bombings.
One has to wonder if framing this construction project as: “the Mosque at Ground Zero” is only meant to inflame passions and generate anti-Muslim sentiment– To well up hatred and prejudice against innocent American citizens because they happen to be followers of Islam.
While President Barak Obama has supported the Muslim community’s right to build the center as a matter of religious freedom, every major potential 2012 GOP White House contender has expressed strong opposition to the project. A prominent GOP pollster has said “It’s a political plus for Republicans if they frame it as an issue with security implications. “This will be one more point in a long litany of points about how the president and the Democratic leadership are out of step with the thinking of most Americans.”
It is clear that Republicans – and some Democrats have made the political calculation that beating up on Islam and Muslims is a winning issue for them in the upcoming elections. All major, mainstream media outlets are now conducting polls and using their so-called results to justify their reports that “the majority of the American people are against building the center.”
Mob justice, however well intentioned or passionate, should never be allowed to trump the constitution. As Americans, we are who we say we are or we are not. Either we are a nation that guarantees the rights and freedoms of all of its citizen, or we allow mob rule and the current rash of nativist panic and religious hatred to rule the day.
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Join Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal in conversation with Prof. Akbar Ahmed for a discussion about Ahmed’s new book: Journey Into America– The Challenge of Islam. The book is said to be the most comprehensive study ever done on the American Muslim community. Hear from an expert on the Muslim experience in the U.S. and what he has to say about the current debate surrounding the cultural center. (Thursday, 8/19,2010, 14th Street, 6:00 PM, Langston Room)
