BUILDING THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO: IT WOULDN’T BE PRUDENT

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Aug182010

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 06:17PM

At the outset, I stipulate that American Muslims who may wish to build a Mosque near “Ground Zero” are well within their Constitutional rights to do so. Christians, Jews, Mormons and other religious denominations in the United States support the First Amendments rights of free exercise of religion for all persons in our nation. So building a Mosque near Ground Zero is legal. But is it prudent? Or is it a breach of civility?

In spite of our national tolerance for diversity of faith, many believe placing a Mosque near Ground Zero is not virtuous, but imprudent. In fact, many consider the act a breach of civility. They think that such an act lacks the virtue of prudence and such behavior lacks civility, namely, consideration for the suffering of other groups who co-exist with Muslims in our melting pot society.

What exactly is the virtue of prudence? It is the ability to use both foresight and insight before acting, so there are no regrets in hindsight. It is the virtue that enables one to consider: What will happen if this act occurs? Is doing this act the “right” thing to do?

Proponents of building the Mosque have engaged in name-calling (argumentum ad hominem). They claim that those who disagree with the decision to build are bigots who are intolerant of the Muslim faith. Is this true?

In this particular case, tolerance and respect must be considered from two perspectives: the freedom to exercise religion and the sensitivity due to the relatives and victims of 911 and to all U.S. citizens who remain scarred by the wounds of 911. Many opponents of building the Mosque near Ground Zero are not intolerant of the Muslims’ right to exercise religion, they just consider exercising that right at the chosen location a breach of civility.

President Obama missed an opportunity to use commonalities in our diverse religious faiths as a unifying force when he addressed this controversy. Rather than taking sides on Friday evening and reversing sides on Saturday, he could have considered the prudence of the great scholar Rabbi Hillel who taught Jewish followers two thousand years ago something that is at the very heart of Torah:

"Don't do to your neighbor what you would hate if your neighbor did it to you."

That is the essence of civility. Or he could have taken a lesson from the deceased Pope John Paul the II who strongly suggested to the nuns who wished to build a convent a Auschwitz, notwithstanding the fact that they had the clear legal right to build a convent there, to be prudent and respectful of the millions of Jews who lost their lives at Auschwitz and build a convent at another location. It takes the virtue of prudence to sometimes not exercise your legal rights in order to avoid doing to your neighbor what you yourself would not like done to you.

It is my hope that all groups planning buildings and projects at or near Ground Zero will emulate the civility of two wise religious leaders, Rabbi Hillel and Pope John Paul II.

Do you agree? Must every legal right be exercised, or is it more prudent, at times to give up a legal right in consideration of your neighbor?

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Michael |

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Faith,

Mosque,

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Reader Comments (11)

Your call to elevate this discussion fits in very well with your ideas on principle and character building. The most robust defense of the Mosque comes from the argument that any religious group has a right to free exercise in America. Yes. This is certainly a truth. It is a bedrock principle we live by in our country. But it's a very low-brow discussion. You know who uses this type of argument all the time? Teenagers. I have a "right" to do this or that, so mom and dad should let me do that. A right is a fundamentally a power. But it never follows that because you can do a thing you ought to do a thing.

The conversation of character and principle does not start from the point of what he "can do" in order to define what we ought to do. It starts from a discussion of what is "good" to do. That idea of the Good makes us all uncomfortable. It is definable but because we humans are limited creatures with limited knowledge (and a track record quite lengthy of getting it wrong), it is a difficult discussion. But having a difficult discussion and engaging its consequences is precisely what separates children from adults.

We need more adults in our public square.

August 19, 2010 |

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