Mosquerade Ball

If you’re at BP headquarters you have got to be thankful for the Ground Zero Mosque (which is not exactly at Ground Zero, but close enough) debate. It’s juicy, it’s extending the pundit careers of rich folks who will continue buying your product, and it’s taking our ire away from your vapid efforts in the gulf. (Although no one has yet suggested that the Moslem group behind the planned mosque is funded by BP, it’s only a matter of time before someone merely drops the suggestion in a small but horribly well-done and critically acclaimed blog.)  The topic is big enough to grab attention of even those at the top of the power chain, and everyone seems to be obliged to weigh in on it.

The whole issue, on both sides of the aisle, is eye-raising; Many think it’s an affront and a travesty to build a worship house of Islam near the Grand Poobah of Moslem atrocities.* Others think it’s an affront and a travesty to deny any religious freedoms to any group within the borders of the Grand Poobah of religious experiments, regardless of hidden motives or agendas. Irrespective of the camp into which people fall, or jump, the issue is so polarizing and tense that emotions get toked and fed even when calm statements are made by one of the calmest presidents in the history of the United States:

As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. 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 unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure.

Even moderates, accused of “employing a clever little dodge” in affirming the right to build the mosque while questioning the wisdom to do so seem to be getting observers all riled up, while others offer up examples of “what Obama should have said” about the whole endeavor.

So are you riled up? Do you care either way about this? Do you take the Ground Zero Mosque as an insult? Or perhaps more interesting, what do you think of the proposed venture to put a Moslem gay bar next to the mosque; Funny? Poor taste? Irony? On point? Do you agree with opponents that Islam is masquerading behind religious freedom while calmly seeking to undermine American principles (whatever those are), or is everyone masquerading behind their own subjective sets of standards, or fears?

*That’s relative, of course, depending on where you live; Ugandans or Somalis or Sudanese or Kurds or Serbs or Indo-Chinese might beg to differ.

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