‘We know all Muslims are not responsible for 9/11. We know our feelings are not completely rational. But they are our feelings. So we ask you to build your mosque elsewhere, because that is the sensitive thing to do.’
The above is not an actual direct quote. It’s a collective paraphrased quote that encapsulates the length, breadth, depth, and width of the argument being made by opponents of the Cordoba House project for why an Islamic community center should not be built near Ground Zero. And, as William Saletan brilliantly explains in Slate, it’s just not enough:
“This is an insensitive move,” says Sarah Palin. “The question here is a question of sensitivity, people’s feelings,” says Rudy Giuliani. It’s “not just insensitive but provocative,” argues Charles Krauthammer. “Those who want to block the mosque are demanding a truly meaningful gesture in ‘special sensitivity,’ ” writes Rich Lowry. Bill Kristol says the proposed location fails to show proper “respect” to the dead. Jonah Goldberg invokes “appropriateness.” Karen Hughes, the former Bush aide, says the mosque should be moved because most Americans “don’t believe it’s respectful, given what happened there.”
Feelings about 9/11 are raw and real. Many people, including families who lost loved ones that day, find the prospect of a mosque near Ground Zero upsetting. I’ve heard this reaction in my family, too. But feelings aren’t reasons. You can’t tell somebody not to build a house of worship somewhere just because the idea upsets you. You have to figure out why you’re upset. What’s the basis of your discomfort? Why should others respect it? For that matter, why should you?
This kind of reflection is missing from the sensitivity chorus. Palin says the uproar over the mosque reflects “the wisdom of the people,” but she doesn’t explain how. Giuliani pleads that some 9/11 families “are crying over this,” but he doesn’t explore the perceptions behind their tears. Hughes, Lowry, and Goldberg appeal to “courtesy,” “decency,” and “good taste,” but they don’t say how these principles apply. Krauthammer points out that Pope John Paul II, “one of the towering moral figures of the 20th century,” once moved a convent away from Auschwitz. But that doesn’t explain why the convent or the mosque should have been moved.
[…]
It’s natural to be angry at Muslims for 9/11. In fact, it’s natural to want to kill them. We’ve hated and killed each other for centuries. You kill us; we kill you. The “you” is collective. You aren’t exactly the infidel who slew my grandfather. But you’re close enough.
[…]
But if our revulsion at the idea of a mosque near Ground Zero is irrational—if it’s based on group blame and a failure to distinguish Islam from terrorism—then maybe it isn’t the mosque’s planners who need to rise above their emotions. Maybe it’s the rest of us.Once we recognize the sensitivity argument for what it is—an appeal to feelings we can’t morally justify—there’s no good reason why the Islamic center shouldn’t be built at its planned site, in the neighborhood where its imam already preaches and its members work and congregate. Asking them to reorder their lives to accommodate our instinctive reaction is wrong. We can transcend that reaction, and we should.
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