Search Results for ground zero mosque

If you thought we’ve been moving farther apart, you were right.

Gallup, which has been asking Americans if we are conservative, moderate or liberal since at least 1992, finds that the self-labeled moderate group has shrunk by 8 percentage points over the last 18 years — a trend it calls “unmistakable.” The shift is split evenly between conservatives and liberals:

It would appear that some moderates became gradually more liberal during the Bush years, and an even larger portion of them have joined the ranks of the conservatives during the Obama era.

Of course, whether you call yourself “moderate” depends in some part on where you think the middle lies. That’s why I think the proportion of self-described moderates in each party (click here for graphs) is less important than the trends of self-described conservatives and liberals:

Republicans consider themselves sharply more conservative, and Democrats think they’re sharply more liberal. The fairly steep decline in conservative …

Continue reading On political moderates, tea-party victories, and more! »

Just because an act is constitutionally protected doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. I made that argument a few weeks ago in the case of the mosque planned for a site near Ground Zero, and I’ll make it again today in the case of a small Florida church whose members plan to burn copies of the Quran this coming Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Yes, the pastor and members of Gainesville’s Dove World Outreach Center — a most unfitting name, it would seem — have the right to burn books, even religious ones. But it’s a particularly stupid idea on several levels, not the least of which is that it could further endanger the lives of American soliders in Afghanistan, as Gen. David Petraeus warns.

It represents a real hostility toward Muslims, unlike the specific and very narrow debate over whether a mosque should be located so close to that still-fresh national wound (no matter how the mosque’s supporters have tried to depict its opponents). A single, small church …

Continue reading Muslims, the First Amendment, and another bad idea »

The American people, having been put through endless sensitivity training over the past few decades, know offensiveness when they see it. And they see it in the mosque proposed for lower Manhattan.

So, yes, the American people are a bit stunned to find the fingers pointed at themselves when controversy erupts over a $100 million Islamic project just two blocks from where 10 terrorists brought down two 110-story towers in the name of Islam. They don’t find this turning of the sensitivity tables ironic, but outrageous.

They are more than irked to hear the speaker of the House of Representatives suggest that those Americans speaking out against the mosque should be investigated to see who’s bankrolling them, not least since the identities of the mosque’s donors are still being withheld.

They hear lofty talk about tolerance and upholding the First Amendment — or at least part of it — and they think, “The freedom to practice Islam in this country does not hinge on the …

Continue reading Europe shows the result of total insistence on tolerance »

President Obama stirred up some trouble he probably regrets over his own dueling comments last weekend about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. On Friday night, at a White House dinner in honor of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, Obama said “… Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.” Which is of course true as far as it goes.

The next day, while on a photo-op visit to Panama City, Fla., Obama clarified those remarks: “I was not commenting [Friday] and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding.”

But from the beginning, the debate over the …

Continue reading The NYC mosque and the Obama two-step »