Despite the problems causing widespread suffering and anxiety across the country, our national conversation is once again being dominated by nonsense. Apart from diverting our focus from more pressing matters, I'm troubled because such issues only get so much attention because they appeal to our baser instincts and worst selves. In this case, the dust-up concerns what some are calling the "Ground Zero Mosque" or "Mosque at Ground Zero." The proposed Islamic cultural center to which they refer will include, among other things, space for Islamic prayer, which is why it's being called a mosque. However, it's not at "Ground zero." I'm not nitpicking; the implication that a mosque was being built on or at this site is no accident. It was calculated to provoke our inner demons of rage and hatred in a way that correctly identifying it as an Islamic cultural center blocks away from "Ground zero" couldn't do.
While some of the rhetoric against this project reflects ignorance or bigotry, most of the opponents are reasonable people of goodwill. They simply believe that the owners of the building have a right to build their center there but shouldn't exercise that right because the proximity to the former World Trade Center offends people's sensibilities. I'm sympathetic to their position, but I can't support it. I'm reminded of a great speech from the movie, The American President, in which fictional president Andrew Shepherd celebrates the magnificent complexity of the U.S. with these words: "America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours."
The point is that people are very often offended because others have rights; that's precisely why we have rights in the first place! We wouldn't bother to enshrine a right unless we had a legitimate fear that at some point we would try to deny someone the privileges protected by that right. This is the very reason we venerate the vision of our country's founders. They wisely foresaw the pitfalls we would encounter, and they designed a system to save us from ourselves. Just as a good parent childproofs a home with a toddler, our founding fathers rabble-proofed our emerging democracy. They understood two critical things: 1) Our passions would become inflamed and 2) inflamed passions are the mortal enemies of reason and justice. Rights are designed to safeguard our society by protecting the entitlements of the unpopular against an angry mob. Whenever we've abandoned fundamental American principles because we were scared or angry and it felt good to dispense with our core values and give in to our demons, we later looked back with shame and regret. Our visionary leaders sought to insulate us from this type of folly.
While an open celebration of Islam anywhere near "Ground zero" may feel inappropriate, unless we're prepared to blame all Muslims for the horrific acts of 0.000001% of the Islamic population, the objection doesn't hold up. They're not building the Osama bin-Laden Jihad Center and Playground (film of the terrorist training camps suggests they love monkey bars). We weren't attacked by Islam, but by a few despicable and hopelessly misguided fanatics who don't speak for over a billion people. Thus, the claims that it's like putting a swastika by the Holocaust Museum or a symbol of Japan by Pearl Harbor miss the point. The closest analogy I can come up with (also flawed) is that it's like putting a Lutheran church a few blocks from the Holocaust Museum.
Insisting that Park 51 (the actual name for the "Ground Zero Mosque") be moved sounds like saying in 1960 North Carolina, "Hey, I ain't saying them people can't eat lunch, I just think they should do it somewhere else. Race mixing our lunch counters not only goes against the Bible but it offends local sensibilities." It also reminds me of the gay rights struggle because it seems to imply that being a closeted Muslim is OK but publicly displaying your pride is offensive. Islam is not synonymous with anti-American terrorism just as Christianity doesn't equal vicious hatred of America just because the Westboro Baptists celebrate dead American soldiers with signs saying "Thank God for IEDs" and "Thank God for dead soldiers."
We're better than this and we can either figure that out now or look back in shame later.
