“Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question – should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?”
—Michael Bloomberg
If you haven’t already done so, I highly encourage you to take a few minutes out of your day and read the entirety of Michael Bloomberg’s ground-clearing speech on the New York City “Ground Zero” mosque.
One of my hobbies is studying religion. I have three core areas I study which all tie together, one of which is the Establishment clause / separation of church and state in America. However, unlike the other areas, this one is also personal.
I am a staunch, hard, unapologetic atheist. I am, also, not a dick. I do not need the people around me to share my religious views, I need them to be good people. While beliefs can tie communities together, it is usually values that are the real linchpin. But it takes a lot of work to learn someone, learn their values, and I think it’s an easy (but wrong) assumption to make that beliefs = values.
I believe, very strongly, that core to the American experience is a freedom to practice religion (or not). Nothing shows our strength of character and our belief in freedom more than letting this mosque be built. And there is very little more intellectually tyrannical than assuming any group of people are less capable, interested in doing good because they are different or because of actions of individual extremists.
