The Cornerstone

For all our nation’s many faults, there is one thing that our country got inarguably right, and that is freedom of religion. From the founding of the republic, religious tests for office have been banned, religious freedoms supported. The right to worship as one pleases, free from government coercion, is one of the cornerstone liberties of our nation, one equal to the freedom to speak and write as one pleases. By allowing all Americans to seek out God (or not) in the manner of their choosing, the Constitution has recognized that the freedom to profess one’s faith is, at its heart, one of the most important freedoms one can exercise.

A couple blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood, a Muslim organization wants to build a community center, which will include a mosque. This is not particularly noteworthy; America is full of churches and synagogues and temples and mosques, places for people of all different faiths to worship as they see fit. Mosques may be less common than churches, but they are places for the faithful to meet and seek God; America has always been a land where that is encouraged and supported.

But of course, those who destroyed the World Trade Center said they were acting in the name of Islam. And because some people are unable to separate the religion of terrorists with their religion in general, the idea that a mosque could be built within walking distance of the World Trade Center has been twisted into something it is not — a provocation.

The latest to advance this canard is former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who, tweeting in her typically malaprop-laden way, demanded that “peaceful Muslims” should “refudiate” the mosque, as if the mosque was not already being built by peaceful Muslims.

Whatever refudiate is supposed to mean, I hope that Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists, Unitarians, agnostics, Hindus, and all Americans of good conscience reject Palin’s demand, and call it what it is: religious bigotry.

Some humans have twisted Islam to support killing. This is nothing new. Judaism, Christianity, and atheism alike have been twisted in support of violence, repression, and evil. But just the Centennial Olympic Park Bombing has not forced a moratorium on Christian churches in Atlanta, neither should the 9/11 attacks, however horrific, force a moratorium on mosques.

America by its very nature is supportive of people gathering where they choose, to worship or talk together as they wish, without government interference. A community center and mosque somewhat near Ground Zero is, in its own way, a very American thing. It is a place where people can express their own ideas, their own dreams, their own vision of God. It is, let me state, a vision I disagree with — I do not agree with most tenets of mainstream Islam. But that is neither here nor there. The freedom of Muslims to gather and worship is my freedom as a Unitarian to gather and worship, and your freedom as a Christian or Jew or Hindu or Buddhist to gather and worship — or your freedom as an atheist not to.

When political leaders start arguing that it is somehow wrong for Americans to gather together and worship as they choose, we lose something of that freedom. Thankfully, the people of New York City — the people who actually endured the most serious attacks in 2001 — seem to understand this far better than Sarah Palin, who was thousands of miles away at the time. And thankfully, my fellow Americans, who happen to be Muslim, will be able to worship as they see fit. As they well should.