I’ve been following the debate about the construction of a 13-story $100 million dollar mosque near the World Trade Center – and I must express my complete and utter amazement by the reaction of the so-called liberals. I think it’s the first time when I see liberals screaming about “property rights” – they actually started sounding like libertarians. It’s as if they completely forgot the liberal mantra “property rights are not human rights”. Instead they suddenly discovered that property rights are the foundation of the freedom of religion.
Well, let me put a small dent into this entire discussion. What if Wal-Mart were to buy a 150 year old building in downtown New York City and proceeded to turn it into a huge, multi-million dollar store? How many liberals would come out and say that any attempts to stop Wal-Mart are clearly unconstitutional and bigoted?
When liberals face conservative challenge to the mosque construction - they react with indignation. One liberal proclaimed that Osama ben Laden hates this mosque and its owner more than he hates the Jews. Another liberal said that must allow the mosque construction because general Petraues said: "We need to live our values. In the long run, that is the best message we can send." Of course, there is no evidence given that Osama bin Laden hates Feisal Abdul Rauf, the owner of the mosque. And it was only recently that liberals called general Petraeus - "general Betray Us". But most importantly - the question stands - what values and principles are liberals defending in the case of the mosque? Surely liberals don't believe in property rights. They have no problem forbidding WalMart to build stores on the legally purchased property (and don’t even start about the Kelo decision), they believe that the government may decide how much salt a private restaurant puts in the food, and whether stores can or cannot use plastic bags – but the moslems have an undeniable right to build mosques anywhere they want irrespective of how local communities react. I mean, as far as values go – I fail to see any consistency. Why can't a community forbid the building of a mosque? What sacred liberal ideals allow the local rich property owner to insult local community and build something inappropriate and possibly bigoted? What specific moral principle allows him to do so and forces liberals to support him?
3 comments:
The consistency is that it is bad for America. It's time we start calling them what most of them are, evil.
Conversely, since when are conservatives against property rights?
We should all be honest about why we are for it or against it. Trestin is being honest, that is what we all should be. If you are against it because of Islam, then say so. If you are for it, because of the minority issues that liberals are always screaming about, then say that. Let's just all call a spade a spade and at least then we can have an honest debate about it.
@ conservative girl. Honest debate yes, of course. The limitation in this case is that no honest debate can be conducted when some members of the debate are card-carrying members of the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR.
How many terrorist groups does a mosque have to be associated with before it's legitimately not welcome in the neighborhood?
Post a Comment