So Harry Reid has waded right into the middle of the "Ground Zero mosque" debate...and expressed his view that the mosque should be located somewhere else.
Paradoxically, he also asserts that the First Amendment protects the right of not just American Muslims but every American of every faith to build houses of worship wherever local authorities have deemed it appropriate to build such institutions. Greg Sargent:
Harry Reid is breaking with the President, claiming that while he respects freedom of religion, he's not willing to defend the right of Muslims to build an Islamc center where they so choose, if the site in question is near Ground Zero.
Specifically, Reid's spokesman says, he thinks it should be built "some place else." From Reid spokesman Jim Manley:
The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Senator Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else. If the Republicans are being sincere, they would help us pass this long overdue bill to help the first responders whose health and livelihoods have been devastated because of their bravery on 911, rather than continuing to block this much-needed legislation.
So on the one hand, Harry Reid says the First Amendment protects religious groups from government intervention in matters of faith.
And on the other hand, Harry Reid is using his influence as the majority leader of one of the two chambers of our nation's legislative branch to intervene in a matter of faith.
I don't care what Harry Reid's personal opinion is, but for him to weigh on this in his capacity as majority leader violates the fundamental principle of the First Amendment, that the government should not be in the business of picking and choosing which faiths ought to be preferred over others.
Even if his view has nothing to do with politics -- and given that his election is coming up in less than three months, it's hard to believe that -- Reid was wrong to weigh in. It's one thing when local politicians express their views, but Reid has no business inserting himself here. Can you imagine how angry he would be if Sarah Palin said that the Clark County Commission was wrong to allow a Mormon Tabernacle to built within a certain distance from a strip club or brothel or casino in Nevada? He'd be mad, and justifiably so.
Unfortunately, instead of embracing the principled position adopted by President Obama over the weekend, Reid has now put himself in the position of picking winners and losers in religion. And that's someplace that no public official should ever want to be.