By Christopher Hitchens
Read the full article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2263334
EXCERPTS:
The dispute over the construction of an Islamic center at “Ground Zero” in Lower Manhattan has now sunk to a level of stupidity that really does shame the memory and the victims of that terrible day in September 2001. One might think that a mosque or madrassa was being proposed in the place of the fallen towers themselves or atop the atomized ingredients of what was once a mass grave.
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Take, for example, the widely publicized opinion of Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Supporting those relatives of the 9/11 victims who have opposed Cordoba House, he drew a crass analogy with the Final Solution and said that, like Holocaust survivors, “their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted.” This cracked tune has been taken up by Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, who additionally claim to be ventriloquizing the emotions of millions of Americans who did not suffer bereavement. It has also infected the editorial pages of the normally tougher-mindedWeekly Standard, which called on President Obama to denounce the Cordoba House on the grounds that a 3-to-1 majority of Americans allegedly find it “offensive.”
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Nothing could be more foreign to the spirit and letter of the First Amendment or the principle of the “wall of separation.” In his incoherent statement, Foxman made the suggestion that it might be all right if the Cordoba House was built “a mile away.” He appears to be unaware that an old building at the site is already housing overflow from the nearby Masjid al-Farah mosque.
Read the full article: http://www.slate.com/id/2263334