MOSQUE “NEAR” GROUND ZERO

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”

First Amendment to The United States Constitution, Bill of Rights 1791.

The curious case of the Park 51 Islamic Center or the Ground Zero Mosque as it is called by its detractors, has recently received more than its fair share of attention in the press.  I am not going to discuss the merits of building a mosque on the ashes of World Trade Center, or the intention of doing so.  The mosque may as well belong to people who think killing non Muslims as ‘infidels’, or stoning adulterers is a good thing.  But the fact that right wing groups are demanding government/judicial intervention into stopping this Islamic Center from being built is in itself abhorring. Because the basic idea of First Amendment is that government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.

What is especially appalling is that the opposition comes from sections which pride themselves in being Conservatives. The problem with rightwing cries for minimum government interference into our private lives is that the whole argument collapses once the focal point shifts from economic to social. Putting up with ideas and beliefs contrary to one’s own is exactly the cost of living in a pluralistic society, but more importantly, granting others the right to practice whatever belief they want to guarantees that our rights will never be infringed upon if people with a different belief rule us.

Constitutional democracy does not mean that the legislative can make whatever laws and prohibitions the majority desires. On the contrary, the underlying principle is to protect rights of the individual against the tyranny of the majority. And this is what America symbolizes. Let not reverse the tradition of freedom into a tradition of restriction.