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Viewpoint - August 19, 2010
Histrionics Over the Mosque: Symbolism Crowds Out Reality
by Ivan Eland
Antiwar.com
The American media, and to a lesser extent the world media,
focus on symbolism at the expense of underlying reality.
And sometimes they can't even make sense of the symbolism.
The artificially generated controversy over a proposed
mosque within about two blocks of the site of the 9/11
attacks is illustrative of this ignorance.
The "liberal" media, which can't pass up a chance at
controversy, has allowed conservatives, who often claim to
be defenders of Philadelphia freedom, to shriek that this
is not an issue of religious freedom but one of callousness
and insensitivity in putting a mosque near the former site
of the World Trade Center. The conservatives, however,
were certainly leaning on government to use its power to
prohibit the building of the mosque using zoning rules, a
clear violation of the founders' intent to ban any law
"prohibiting the free exercise" of religion.
Meanwhile, liberal President Barack Obama, in speaking
about the mosque, first defended religious liberty,
implied that opposition to the mosque violated such
freedom, and then later seemed to back off by saying that
he wasn't commenting on the wisdom of building the mosque
? just defending the right of a construction permit.
Another liberal, Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader,
also defended religious freedom theoretically, but insisted
that the mosque should be built somewhere else. These
comments flung the door wide open to conservatives to use
public pressure to preempt the building of the mosque.
Yet conservative opposition to building the mosque is based
on ignorance. Even if erecting the mosque is insensitive
to the pain of 9/11, which I would argue that it is not,
the Constitution doesn't require people or groups to be
sensitive to others' concerns in order to enjoy religious
freedom. For example, some Christians hold Jews responsible
for killing Christ, but that does not preclude Jews from
worshiping freely in the United States. Furthermore, the
mosque is being proposed by the Cordoba Initiative, which
is dedicated to improving Western/Islamic relations and
promoting interfaith dialogue, and the leading person
behind the project is from the most liberal and tolerant
group in Islam, the Sufis. Lastly, two long-standing
mosques are already in the neighborhood of "ground zero."
Some proponents of building the mosque argue that main-
stream Muslims should not be punished for the actions of
militant Islamists. Since zoning laws or public pressure
have not been used to prohibit the construction of
evangelical Christian churches near the sites of abortion
clinic bombings, these advocates have a good point. More-
over, not allowing this mosque to be built, whether
because of government zoning restrictions or mere public
pressure, could help radicalize moderate Muslims around
the world. Muslims around the world pay close attention
to how American Muslims are treated, because they fear a
"war of civilizations" between the Christian and Islamic
worlds. When they hear Newt Gingrich say that the mosque
would be an example of Muslim "triumphalism," they are
fearful of such a cross-civilizational conflict or may
be more likely to become radicalized and say "bring it
on."
Most important, stifling the construction of this mosque
would further add to the delusions of the American public
about the causes of the 9/11 attacks. Radical Islam had
less to do with those attacks than retaliation for long-
standing American meddling in and occupation of Arab and
Muslim countries. At the time of the attacks, those
delusions were fostered by then-President George W. Bush,
who, while professing that he wanted no war against Islam,
blamed the attacks on al-Qaeda's jealousy of American
freedoms (you know, the ones opponents of the mosque are
trying to subvert). Osama bin Laden's adamant denial of
Bush's assertion, and the al-Qaeda leader's repeated
statements that American intervention in and occupation
of Arab and Islamic countries motivate his attacks on the
United States, have not yet penetrated the psyche of the
American public. Neither has empirical research done by
Robert Pape from the University of Chicago, which shows
that suicide bombing has a lot less to do with religion
and more to do with throwing out foreign occupiers
(especially democratic occupiers).
So the media's and public's attention to trivia, such as
the creation of a third mosque in the neighborhood of
"ground zero," crowds out a national discussion that is
sorely needed about why terrorists are heinously attacking
the United States in the first place. Perhaps then the
contributory negligence of the U.S. government would be
exposed to its own people, and an unnecessary, outdated,
expensive, and dangerous interventionist foreign policy
would be reined in.
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