This past week a simmering controversy over the construction of an Islamic community center two blocks from the World Trade Center reached a boiling point across the country.
Republican politicians leading the charge against the center have dubbed it "Ground Zero Mosque," creating the misconception that the hallowed ground of the Twin Towers is being built over and stoking dangerous anti-Muslim fears.
The reality is much more benign: The center, conceived by a Muslim leader known for his interfaith work with the Bush Administration after 9/11 and founded with the mission of spreading religious understanding and tolerance, will provide a swimming pool, auditorium, restaurants, and other spaces open to the community, and is to be built on the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory.
Those fighting against the center have cloaked themselves in the banner of patriotism. But there is nothing patriotic about blocking the right to religious freedom. As New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has said, "The ability to practice your religion was one of the real reasons America was founded."
Mayor Bloomberg, who grew up surrounded by anti-Semitism and knows what it feels like to be a target of religious discrimination, reports that all the families of 9/11 victims he has spoken with have been supportive of the building. Referring to the victims, Bloomberg says, "We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights - and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked."
The decision of whether the Islamic center should be allowed to go forward as planned won't impact just one building; it will be seen as a sign of whether America can make peace with Islam.
In the wake of the controversy in New York City, Islamic centers and mosques have been subjected to protests and harassment by right-wing groups across the country. Protestors have shouted that "Jesus hates Muslims" and called Muslim children entering day care centers "murderers." The Christian Dove World Outreach Center has renamed 9/11 "International Burn a Koran Day," and Bryan Fischer of the right-wing American Family Association says that we should not allow "even one more mosque in the United States of America."
This is a defining moment for the country. Will we stand strong in support of our principles of religious freedom and tolerance, or will we succumb to hate and ignorance and fear?
Generations of Americans have shed blood to protect our First Amendment right to religious freedom for a reason. Let us not easily forget that.
He was also known for his unrepentant lifelong use of alcohol, LSD, mescaline, and cocaine (among other substances); his love of firearms, and his iconoclastic contempt for authoritarianism. After a long bout of health problems, he committed suicide at age 67 in 2005.