The Elephant in the Room
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010I sent this letter to the Op Ed dept at the New York times. I don’t expect them to print it - because there have been so many good letters and articles on it already. But it was good to collect my thoughts on the matter.
—– Forwarded Message —-
From: Andy Kessler
To: oped@nytimes.com
Sent: Wed, August 18, 2010 10:28:11 AM
Subject: The Elephant in the Room
The fiery rhetoric of Newt Gingrich this week has underscored a huge misrepresentation that is at the heart of the controversy in building an Islamic community center (the so called Mosque) at ground zero. This misrepresentation attempts to subvert the First Amendment which guarantees the free exercise of religion. We need to address this elephant in the room.
The religion of Islam did not attack the United States on 9/11 - neither did Iraq or Iran. For the record it was Al-Qaeda that attacked the United States on 9/11. They are probably best described as a group of terrorists, originally operating from Afghanistan, that distorts the principles of Islam to validate their murderous ideology.
The American military understands this point. There are thousands of devout Muslims in the American military. Many of them pray in the Religious chapel at the Pentagon - the other 9/11 ground zero site. The Pentagon Chaplain’s Office schedules weekly religious services in the chapel for Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Protestants, Episcopalians, and Catholics. Muslim worshippers can gather daily to pray and can attend a Friday Prayer Service led by an Imam.
The decision to allow an Islamic Center to be built on Park Place must be made by New Yorkers based on zoning laws and if they want to permit a house of worship to move forward on that spot. But as Americans we must support the First Amendment of the Constitution and not tolerate a decision which would allow a Church or Synagogue to be built in a specific location but not a Mosque or an Islamic community center.
Andy Kessler
San Ramon, CA