Some of these often taken-for-granted freedoms include freedom of speech, especially when one disagrees with what others have to say; freedom of religion, even when one doesn't share the same religious views; and, yes, also protection of private property, the freedom to do what one chooses with one's possessions. For these reasons, it is sensible and reasonable that those who hold title to the land at ground zero be allowed to use it as they choose. Otherwise we risk descending down a slippery slope that begins to gut the Constitution and gradually deprive citizens of their rights under certain "special" circumstances.
And who decides what "special" circumstances there will be in exception to guaranteed Constitutional rights? And if we curtail certain Constitutional rights, why not others? Maybe in certain circumstances, free speech should not be allowed, or even the right to peaceful assembly, or religious freedom, or perhaps the right to keep and bear arms, or even the right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure? Clearly, we do not want to allow this sort of precedent. The ground zero mosque should not be banned or disallowed precisely on these grounds. We need not agree with the idea of building a mosque at the ground zero location, but we ought to allow it on principles of religious freedom, and protection of private property. Otherwise, our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms increasingly become perilously moot.
Much of the controversy over the building of the ground zero mosque appears to be intentional emotional propaganda on the part of luminary neo-Conservatives, attempting to create civil unrest prior to election season, as well as to justify their illegal wars in the middle east that are based on an imperialistic foreign policy in turn based on fear and propaganda (read: Orwell, 1984). In November we will have U.S. elections, and if Obama and company can be painted as pro-Muslim, pro-Islamist or somehow "un-American," the Republican Party could dramatically increase its chances of placing neo-Conservatives into key congressional and senatorial positions. If the people of the U.S. are going to replace elements of the Obama administration, they ought to do so for the right reasons: for their ill-advised economic policies, their ill-promised foreign and military policies, their ill-conceived healthcare legislation, and generally, their ill-continued Bush-administration policies. Not this colossal Romanesque bread and circuses distraction and highly emotional anti-Muslim propaganda.
In any case, just look at the backgrounds of media luminaries that are most vocal against the building of the mosque at ground zero: Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and Sarah Palin. That luminescent mouthful should send a neo-Conservative shiver down one's spine. (Sarah Palin does a nice "Tea-Party / pro-Constitution" talk, but it's rife with rhetoric, short on substance). If one looks closely, one will find that the majority of heavily vocal media limelight critics of the ground zero mosque are staunch neo-Conservative supporters.
As for recent CNN polls that state 68% of the population are against the building of the mosque: 1) can we really trust the implied meaning behind these numbers? and 2) even if those numbers accurately portray American sentiment, it could just as well show how easily people are swayed by emotionally charged, righteously indignant propaganda. However, I'd like to believe that the majority of Americans are more intelligent than that, and what those numbers represent is something quite different.
The Daily Kos' recent article, "CNN's Ground Zero Mosque Poll: It's All in the Question," by Jed Lewison, shone a brilliant light on these poll numbers. In short, there's a big difference between agreeing with the building of the mosque, and agreeing with the right to build it. From the Daily Kos article:
"[T]his is a case where you have to look at the question to understand what the poll means. The question:"
As you may know, a group of Muslims in the U.S. plan to build a mosque two blocks from the site in New York City where the World Trade Center used to stand. Do you favor or oppose this plan?
"When you ask the question with those words, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that you're going to find a lot of opposition. It's not just that it frames the issue in the same way that Republicans have framed it, it's also that it completely sidesteps questions of tolerance and religious freedom."
"The question didn't even explicitly ask whether people believed the government should intervene to outlaw the mosque; it merely asked whether people supported plans by American Muslims to build it. Those two questions are not synonymous."
"CNN also didn't ask people whether they felt government should ban Muslims from choosing their own place of worship, nor did they ask whether all religious groups in America, even unpopular ones, deserve the same level of protection from the first amendment."
Jed Lewison then goes on to provide suggestions for better poll questions that would get at the heart of the matter. For example:
Do you believe the New York City government should forbid American Muslims from building a private house of worship anywhere in the vicinity of where the World Trade Center used to stand?
And:
Do you believe that every religious group, including the American Muslims building a house of worship two blocks from where the World Trade Center used to stand, deserves the same protection from the First Amendment's protection of religious liberty?
Or, more succinctly:
Should the government control who builds houses of worship and where they're located?
As the author states, these questions get at the core issue: whether the government ought to ban American Muslims from practicing freedom of religion.
"You don't need to be an active proponent of building the mosque to also believe that the government shouldn't ban it."
Well said, Jed.
References:
1. Ron Paul, "Left and the Right Demagogue Mosque, Islam," Campaign For Liberty
2. Jed Lewison, "CNNs Ground Zero Mosque Poll: Its All in the Question," The Daily Kos
3. Nate Silver, "Poll's, Reporting on Ground Zero May Mislead," FiveThirtyEight
4. The Times of India, "Most New Yorkers Against Ground Zero Mosque: Poll"
5. The Daily Beast, "Ground Zero Mosque: Whose For, Whose Against"
