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Ben Smith of Politico reports that former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson supports President Obama’s stance on the Cordoba Institute:
President Obama’s defense of Muslims’ right to build a mosque near Ground Zero was a sharp rebuke to most of the contemporary Republican Party, but it was very much in line with the tone of his predecessor, George W. Bush, who had waged his own internal party wars over his insistence that Islam is a “religion of peace.”
A former senior Bush aide, chief speechwriter Michael Gerson, told POLITICO last night that he supports Obama’s decision.
“An enormously complex and emotional issue — but ultimately the right thing to do,” Gerson said. “A president is president for every citizen, including every Muslim citizen. Obama is correct that the way to marginalize radicalism is to respect the best traditions of Islam and protect the religious liberty of Muslim Americans. It is radicals who imagine an American war on Islam. But our conflict is with the radicals alone.”
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So? The views of the only people that matter are being ignored. That would be the families of the 9/11 murder victims.
DeepSouthPopulist: And the 9/11 families, like most Americans, are divided on this issue – some seeing it as a ‘slap in the face’ and others as “…not going to brand any group for the actions of a few of the fringe…”
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/9-11-families-speak-out-on-ground-zero-muslim-center/19581141
Ultimately this is not about peoples’ sensibilities. It is about freedom and we need to give it more than lip service.
The Republicans shout: We must stay and fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, and create reliable allies, while at home we must denigrate their religion at every opportunity that we can and pretend that they will never notice.
DSP, Al Qaeda is not building the mosque. Look, many KKK members go to Baptist churches, so because of that should all Baptist churches be banned from being built near any black person?
And it is not being built at ground zero. Having lived in that area and knowing it is two blocks away and knowing how much traffic can slow to a crawl, we should call it ground 2 hours.
@DeepSouthPopulist…what about the views of the families of Muslim Americans that lost their lives on 9/11? Do they not count? Or in your calculus do they not matter because they are in the minority? And you might want to check one little factoid-a plurality of those living in Manhattan-the location of the proposed community center-SUPPORT it.
http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/nycpolls/c100728/Bloomberg_RV/Construction_of_Mosque_Near_World_Trade_Center_Site.htm
And regardless of the views of ANYONE the Constitution protects the freedom of religion…ALL RELIGIONS. Muslim Americans did not perpetrate the heinous acts of 9/11, Muslim extremists from another country and culture did. You should think a little more deeply about who would be hurt if this Cordoba house is demonized to the point of not being built, and that’s all Americans.
Folks, especially conservatives, love to rant about their love of the Constitution, well now’s a great time to prove it by supporting the Cordoba house. At the risk of going over the top I’m going to go back to a popular phrase: if the Cordoba House doesn’t get built, the terrorists truly have won.
Gerson: …respect the best traditions of Islam….
Which are what, exactly?
What the liberal Mr. Gerson says on the issue is irrelevant. However, a mosque where the Twin Towers stood is appropriate. Manhattan considers itself a multicultural polyglot so having a Muslim house of worship adds to the mosaic of Manhattan. Most Manhattanites despise Christianity as do most Muslims.