On the Cordoba House Muslim Community Center

First of all, let's make clear that the "Ground Zero mosque" is not just a mosque and is not at ground zero.  The planned Muslim community center is going to replace the supposed "hallowed ground" of the old Burlington Coat Factory on Park Place (take a look at the site here).

www.national911memorial.com - South Memorial Pool Vista

Other commentators have aptly pointed out that probably one of the reasons why this particular development of the Muslim cultural center irks so many in New York City and around the country is due to the fact that construction of the new World Trade Center and corresponding 9/11 memorial has been painfully and depressingly slow.

Second, kudos to the President for his brave speech on religious freedom during the White House Iftar Dinner for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (full text) proudly proclaiming our American values of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Third, shame on the President for then walking back his comments on the following Saturday while on vacation in Florida (video here).

"In this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion," Mr. Obama said at the Coast Guard station. "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That's what our country is about."

Arrggh.  The whole point of electing Obama as the Democratic nominee was so we wouldn't get another Clinton, and we got one anyway!

I digress. This is not hard to understand. If we allow al-Qaeda to scare us into giving up our constitutional values then the terrorists have won.  We don't need to fight them in Iraq or Afghanistan. We can call it quits and come home because our values and ideas are only worth fighting for abroad if we can UPHOLD THEM AT HOME.

The United States Constitution is not the guarantor of anyone's personal moral beliefs; it is instead designed to protect LIBERTY and FREEDOM. Sometimes the Constitution protects rights that we often disagree on in normal discourse, such as the right to have a handgun in dangerous urban neighborhoods or the right to have an abortion without telling one's parents.

However, sometimes the Constitution protects rights that most of us personally disagree with.  Such as the right of a crazy super right-wing minister to protest during military funerals because our culture "tolerates homosexuality." Many conservatives and Republicans are upset with the community center, calling the building location "offensive."

On June 14, 1977, the Supreme Court in National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie held that Neo-Nazis could march through the town of Skokie, Illinois, a town with the largest number of Holocaust survivors per capita at the time.  Now that is offensive.  If the Constitution protects Neo-Nazis who are trying to purposefully give the community they harmed the middle finger, it definitely protects moderate Muslims who are just trying to build a community center, yes with a mosque, in an old worn out building that used to be a Burlington Coat Factory, near the site of a horrible tragedy.

Of all the freedoms in this country we are blessed with, the most important is our freedom of - and freedom from - religion. It is our core principle, it is why we are here, and it is why our young Republic was founded.  If we fail to uphold the principles that led to our founding, the United States of America that we seek so dearly to protect, ceases to exist.