The Freedom to Build

Spending more than ten minutes discussing the non-issue of Manhattan’s Cordoba House is an unimaginable waste of time. It is the greatest farcical discussion of this year, stupefying in its vapidity and breathtaking in its intolerance. It shows nothing more than a terrifying lack of understanding of and respect for the Constitution, despite what the House’s critics have claimed. It is insulting, it is baseless, and it is, worst of all, wrong.

The address of the House is 45-51 Park Place, two blocks north of the former World Trade Center (and formerly a Burlington Coat Factory). The building will soon function as an Islamic community center, complete with worship room, auditorium, and pool.

First, 45-51 Park is private property, owned by privately-owned Soho Properties. Since they own the land, this company has the right to build on that land as they—and their respective community board—see fit. The company first decided to use this location for the House. The Downtown Community Board later approved the proposed usage. As such, the center enjoys the Constitutional right to be built on that property. Case closed.

Next, as many have already noted, the center is more or less an Islamic YMCA. So to call Cordoba a “mosque” is equivalent to calling every YMCA in the United States a “church.” Which is wrong. Furthermore, the House’s owners have just as much a right to build a place of (partial) worship as the owner of any already-built YMCAs, since the beginnings of those buildings were originally aimed at bible worship. More on this right can be found in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

As for all those who claim that Park51 is no more than a “victory mosque” built on “hallowed ground,” a modest suggestion: Stop. You are embarrassing to America and its rich tradition of religious freedom. You claim you are “offended” and “insulted” by this center. But in doing so, you are equating a world religion with Islamic terrorism. Which is racist. Your intolerance does not supersede the Constitution. You, in the end, are wrong. So please, please, please go find another document to tear up in the name of your degenerative version of freedom.