The Muslim Cultural Center, planned for construction in lower Manhattan, has become a bellwether issue among Conservatives, fundamentalists and other groups who devalue the first Amendment to the Constitution.
Fortunately, many New Yorkers - most prominently Mayor Bloomberg - have raised their voices in support of religious tolerance and freedom of expression.
Ironically, some 'civil rights' organizations have decided to go along with those who would ignore the First Amendment's call for religious freedom. The ADL was the first to demand the Islamic Cultural Center be relocated. The argument offered by ADL President Abe Foxman is so disingenuous and facile as to strain the bounds of irony.
I hope you have read our statement on the proposed Islamic Center at Ground Zero and, more importantly, understand our position. We did not oppose the right for an Islamic Center or a mosque to be built. What we did was to make an appeal based solely on the issues of location and sensitivity. If the stated goal was to advance reconciliation and understanding, we believe taking into consideration the feelings of many victims and their families, of first responders and many New Yorkers, who are not bigots but still feel the pain of 9/11, would go a long way to achieving that reconciliation.
ADL has and will continue to stand up for Muslims and others where they are targets of racism and bigotry, as we have done at the request of and on behalf of Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf.
The argument that the ADL does not oppose the 'right' to build the Islamic Center, but feels that building it so close to Ground Zero would add to the pain of the families of the 9/11 victims. They propose that if the group behind building the Center is really seeking 'reconciliation', they will build it eleswhere. Foxman says the ADL is against bigotry, but this issue isn't about bigotry, it's about all those non-bigoted survivors who would feel pain if the Islamic Center located two blocks from the WTC site.
The ADL has a long history of fighting for Civil Rights for all people regardless of race or religion. They were leaders in the Civil Rights movement in the fifties and sixties. I have a friend whose father, a prominent Cleveland Rabbi, had his skull fractured during a voting rights drive in Hatiesburg, Mississippi sponsored by the ADL.
It is a tragedy that they have become another neo-con front group. To add to the tragedy (and the irony) another internationally prominent human rights group has come out against the Islamic Center.
The Wiesenthal Center, named in honor of Holocaust survivor and champion of human rights across the globe, Simon Wiesenthal, has come out against the Islamic Center. Ironically, the Wiesenthal Center has just opened the Museum of Tolerance in Manhattan.
From today's TPM
The group behind the recently opened "Museum of Tolerance" museum in Manhattan has come out against a planned Islamic community center, which includes a mosque, near Ground Zero.
"Religious freedom does not mean being insensitive...or an idiot," Rabbi Meyer May, the Wiesenthal Center's executive director, told Crain's New York.
"Religion is supposed to be beautiful," he said. "Why create pain in the name of religion?"
I think that Rabbi Meyer May needs to check his dictionary for what the word tolerance actually means. I hope that many other religious and civic leaders will rise up in defense of the First Amendment and fight back against this intolerance and bigotry.
Implicit in these arguments from the ADL and the Wiesenthal Center is that the one billion Muslims in the world somehow share in the blame for 9/11 and they should therefore be more 'sensitive' to those who are bigoted against them. Blaming the victims of this campaign of intolerance and hatred is unworthy of any organization that claims to promote human rights.