Posted by
KsReaganite on Thursday, August 26, 2010 7:40:33 PM
Like my hero Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of this blog, I am a firm believer in the freedom of religion enshrined in the First Amendment. The spirit and the words of the Amendment are crystal clear to those who do not fall in the category of politicians trying to keep their jobs or wanting a promotion. It is the culture of ‘anything it takes’ that makes Dr. Newt Gingrich wants us to descend to the level of Saudi Arabia, instead of making the Saudis elevate their shoddy record of human rights to our levels.
The builders of the Park51 mosque have a right to build and worship on private property as long as local ordinances are followed. The right is near absolute, if you believe in the Constitution.
It is no shame for the the mosque organizers to go the extra mile and be sensitive to the feelings of their neighbors. A house of worship is an edifice; the sanctuary is in the hearts of believers. I know enough Muslims and enough of Islam to know that the location of the mosque is largely irrelevant to the quality of the worship within. Why not show the neighborliness that many authentic Islamic traditions command and move the mosque a few hundred yards, if possible?
This controversy should also be a wake up call for attention to the plight of those non-Muslims persecuted in Muslim lands. Let me be clear: Muslims in America are not responsible for the deplorable policies and customs in many Middle Eastern and South Asian countries vis-à-vis religious liberty. But why not use this teaching moment to raise the issue of global religious liberty? Even in those Muslim countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh where palpable freedom of religion is enshrined in the written law, the fate of converts can range from destitution to extra judicial death; many countries openly disallow building of churches and synagogues; some like Saudi Arabia simply prohibit any public worship of the non-Sunni Islamic kind. These are valid issues to raise by our human rights organizations and our foreign affairs leaders with the Muslim world.
We should believe in religious liberty here…and abroad.