two americas

As with so many issues, the less thoughtful are busy calling each other fear-mongers and whateveraphobes. In regard to the so-called "ground zero mosque" - news flash not everyone support the idea is a terrorist sympathizer and not everyone against it is an "Islamophobe and fear-monger". For me, I found Ross Douthat's piece in The New York Times insightful. Douthat proffers the concept of two America's, one constitutional and one cultural. I find it interesting how those on either side of the mosque issue (and other issues like it) switch which America they represent almost seamlessly as it suits their need. Those supporting the mosque cite a constitutional rationale for doing so (and I agree with that aspect) yet they are happy to be "cultural Americans" as they add liberties to some people group at the cost of slavery to others.

That aside, Douthat's article is worth reading and his conclusion is worth reading again.

By global standards, Rauf may be the model of a “moderate Muslim.” But global standards and American standards are different. For Muslim Americans to integrate fully into our national life, they’ll need leaders who don’t describe America as “an accessory to the crime” of 9/11 (as [Feisal Abdul] Rauf did shortly after the 2001 attacks), or duck questions about whether groups like Hamas count as terrorist organizations (as Rauf did in a radio interview in June). And they’ll need leaders whose antennas are sensitive enough to recognize that the quest for inter-religious dialogue is ill served by throwing up a high-profile mosque two blocks from the site of a mass murder committed in the name of Islam.

They’ll need leaders, in other words, who understand that while the ideals of the first America protect the e pluribus, it’s the demands the second America makes of new arrivals that help create the unum.

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