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Aug 20, 2010
Isn’t it quite obvious what this hysteria over the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan, two blocks away from Ground Zero is all about? It’s politics as usual. And judging from whose mouths the loudest noise is coming, it can be told, that yes, it’s a hysteria fanned no less by the right wing Republicans, among them, presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin. The likes, too, of John Boehner and Eric Cantor, et. al.
The noise of these debates on national television, emails, blogs, tweeters and facebooks filled the air it almost felt nauseating. And then, what the provokers wanted to happen happened. President Obama joined in the fray, stating as had been expected, his support of the First Amendment and “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.”
Perhaps warned of or fearing political backlash, President Obama stepped back a little bit and ‘qualified’ his statement saying, “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there.” What else is new? Politics wins as usual. Senate President Harry Reid, too, made an earlier announcement of not supporting construction of the Manhattan mosque.
Lest we forget, when former President George W. Bush declared unequivocally to the world, “You’re either for us or against us,” on his campaign for support of US invasion of Iraq. He drew a clear line of demarcation between countries supporting Iraqi invasion as US allies and countries that didn’t support us as US enemies. Regardless of the fact that the United Nation’s fact-finding mission in Iraq didn’t yield any weapons of mass destruction, Bush and Cheney went ahead and bombed the country. Who really knew how many innocent lives were lost in this brazen, mindless and arrogant act of supremacy? It wasn’t just countless Iraqi lives lost, it was thousands of young American lives as well.
True, a dictator was felled and Iraq was rid of a corrupt and crazy leader. But ask yourselves if you think Iraq in ruins, its government utterly in disarray and its citizens under constant threats of suicide bombers, is really better today than before US invaded it. Better still ask their citizens if they think they are better off today than they were in the time of Saddam Hussein.And are we any safer now than we were before 9/11? Who could tell? What we can tell for certain is this, George W. came into power in 2001 with 236 billion budget surplus and left in 2009 with 1.2 trillion budget deficit. That’s largely the economic cost of the Iraq War.
So, which is a bitter pill to swallow? The thought of a mosque built two blocks to Ground Zero or the guilt of ‘destroying’ a nation like Iraq that will soon be left to fend for itself and fight the terror of Al Qaeda? Who has more blood in his hands? And yet, these so-called defenders of the Constitution with exceptions think that the First Amendment is to be respected only in so far as it does not offend the senses and sensibilities of the poor Americans whose loved ones perished in the Twin Towers because of the atrocious terrorist acts of these Muslim jihadists.
Pray tell how these very politicians who advocated Iraq’s invasion on a misguided, perhaps fabricated intelligence of weapons of mass destruction, or on other possible selfish motives, could carry on without guilt but lose sleep over the construction of a mosque by a religious group that had nothing to do with 9/11? Shylock in Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” decried how he was unfairly treated as a Jew by the Christians. He asked, “If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his
humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”
But Jesus has another teaching. To the people who wanted to stone a sinful woman to death, he pronounced, “He who is without sin may cast the first stone.” And the people went away, shamed by the realization of their foolish action. To the woman,Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” Whose example are we to follow? Shylock’s or Jesus’? And by following whoever’s example, we are setting one ourselves, for the rest of humankind to follow. Double standard is a way of the ignorant. In a truly enlightened environment, ignorance has no place. And in a morally upright world, bitterness, revenge and hatred are soothed by unconditional love.