We the people

I've been thinking over the last couple of days about the brouhaha (love that word) over the "Ground Zero mosque" plans that have resulted in probably some ridiculous number of reactionary Facebook groups, not to mention outraged blogs and articles. To which, of course, there are then further reacting-to-the-reaction tweets, blogs and Facebook groups. And so on.

When Sarah Palin wrote an incendiary Facebook post (which I note has now been removed) she was accused of festering racial hatred and encouraging discrimination. I also see that she was writing in response to liberal bloggers jumping all over her use of the made-up word "refudiate" in a tweet, which has also subsequently vanished.

I have a few issues with her view that are apart from the accusation of stirring up religious intolerance.

--First, the mosque is not planned for Ground Zero. It's a few blocks up the street. I suppose, to draw a parallel, it'd be like the Catholic Church wishing to open a new parish community building up the road from Omagh town centre. The Catholic Church (for all its myriad faults) is not responsible for the actions of some of its claimed adherents just as the Islamic faith as a whole is not responsible for the violence perpetrated in its name on September 11. Sarah Palin's use of the phrase "Hallowed Ground" is therefore more than a little questionable.

--If you'll forgive an ignorant foreigner's reading of the Constitution, to ban the construction of such a building seems to be a fairly flagrant breach of the first amendment. If the building of such a religious centre would otherwise satisfy the state of New York's planning laws etc, to refuse it solely because it is a mosque is unacceptable religious discrimination.

--While I don't pretend to understand the psychology behind religious extremism, it seems to me that the very act of allowing a religious community centre of this nature to be built in such close proximity to Ground Zero would do more to discourage Islamist extremism, especially of the home-grown variety, than any number of troops stationed abroad.

I was very happy to see Mayor Bloomberg's statement on the subject, when talking about a possible ban: "That's not America". To ban a mosque from Manhattan on the basis that the people who flew the planes on September 11 were Muslim would be a shocking betrayal of the very principles on which the United States was founded.