The Ground Zero Mosque

First off, let me tell a story about my neighborhood association.  About 2003 or so, a Muslim group in Little Rock decided to purchase some land and build a Muslim enclave.  It was going to have apartments, single family housing, a school, and a mosque.  It was going to be located within the boundaries of what the leaders of my neighborhood association considered their jurisdiction.

The association held a meeting.  I attended.  Most of the people there were there to speak against the Muslims.  A couple of people expressed the opinion that it was, after all, the Muslims' property and they could probably do with it as they pleased, provided they got the right zoning variances from the city.  That inspired the the anti-'s to start planning to block the zoning actions. I mentioned that if it was a Baptist group there wouldn't be a murmur and I got some nasty looks but the best reaction came from an elderly gentleman who looked at me and said, "But who wants to let 'em build a goddamned musk?"

In the end, the Muslim group couldn't raise the money for all the construction they planned to to but they still own the property and they haven't gone away.

So.

The Cordoba Initiative (http://www.cordobainitiative.org/), headed by Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, wants to develop some property they have in Manhattan, a couple of blocks from the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers.  They plan to build a recreation center, a 500-seat auditorium, a restaurant and cooking school, a museum, a library, a day-care center, a 9-11 memorial, and a mosque.

Before we go further, lets look at the Constitution of the United States (http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution, if you want to follow along), specifically the First Amendment:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Let's review:  "Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion."  Next, the 14th Amendment (currently so much criticized by the GOP) -- says, in part:  "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States"  Again, let's review:  "No state can take away the rights of a US citizen."  Let's put those two together, boys and girls:  "Nobody can stop somebody from worshiping as they please."  To me, that strongly suggests that worshiping where you please is also something a person is allowed to to in the United States.

But, you say, perhaps this interpretation of the law is merely Tony's.  Let us look then at the "Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA)," That's Public Law 106-274, 42 United States Code § 2000cc-1.  Specifically, let's look at Section 2, paragraph (b):

(b) DISCRIMINATION AND EXCLUSION-
(1) EQUAL TERMS- No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that treats a religious assembly or institution on less than equal terms with a nonreligious assembly or institution.
(2) NONDISCRIMINATION- No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation that discriminates against any assembly or institution on the basis of religion or religious denomination.
(3) EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITS- No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation that--
(A) totally excludes religious assemblies from a jurisdiction; or
(B) unreasonably limits religious assemblies, institutions, or structures within a jurisdiction.

In pretty plain language, this says (3 times, no less) that the government can't make a law preventing someone from using their own property for religious purposes.  By the way, this law, introduced by Orrin Hatch (Rep-Utah), was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate in 2000.

Tired of this yet?

Newt Gingrich says that until Christian churches are allowed in Saudi Arabia, we shouldn't let the Cordoba Initiative go forward (http://www.newt.org/newt-direct/newt-gingrich-statement-proposed-mosqueislamic-community-center-near-ground-zero).  Jon Stewart, of Comedy Central's "Daily Show" has remarked "Why should we as Americans have to have a higher standard of religious liberty than even Saudi Arabia?" (http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/jon-stewart-slams-right-wingers-ground-zer).  Newt is also afraid that the US will adopt sharia as the law of the land (http://www.newt.org/newt-direct/no-mosque-ground-zero)

Sarah Palin, that world-renown expert on -- well, just about everything -- is...is...simply insane.  http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/14/sarah-palin-questions-obamas-support-for-ground-zero-mosque/
I can't think of any other way to describe her.

John Cornyn thinks that matters of religious freedom are up to voters (http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/other-races/114325-sen-cornyn-this-is-not-about-freedom-of-religion-) and that Democrats will suffer in November because President Obama made a clear and unambiguous statement concerning religious freedom.

I spent the eight years of the Bush the Younger administration wondering what had happened to my country.  How could we have become so blind to evil?  I'm beginning to understand now:  we are evil.