Much Ado about a Mosque

Much ado is being made over an Imam wanting to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York. Talk show hosts, the President, and even the Senate Majority leader are all discussing it. Invariably they discuss this as a First Amendment issue. Even the action flick hero Chuck Norris has weighed in on the argument. Unfortunately they are all wrong.

This is not a First Amendment matter. Here is exactly what the First Amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I challenge the reader (or any reader) to identify where the First Amendment prohibits or grants the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero. Nothing in the First Amendment addresses the siting or building of a mosque. Nor does the First Amendment (by any rational reading) prohibit Congress or New York from prohibiting the construction of a mosque within x city blocks of Ground Zero. It is well established that zoning rules may prohibit certain types of establishments from locating at certain areas.

Clearly this is not a First Amendment issue. It is, however, a Fifth Amendment issue. The Fifth Amendment states that: “No person shall be…...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Prohibiting the mosque could reasonably (and should be) deemed an illegal action based upon the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition against the taking of private property.

The owners of the property have every legal right to build a mosque on their property as there are no laws prohibiting that land at that location. That said, do not confuse a legal right with a moral right or an ethical right or even what is right. Nor should a legal right be confused with understanding, compassion, or similar emotions.

If this monument to an attack by Muslim extremists (i.e. the mosque) is built near Ground Zero then the Imams and all Muslims in America that do not now speak out against this insensitive act do forever forfeit their rights to any future claim regarding a lack of sensitivity or understanding or any other emotional related actions taken by others against them due to their religion or beliefs. Thus if families of the 9/11 victims chose to (in the words of Neal Boortz and one of his callers) encircle the mosque with BBQ joints and nude bars and similar then the Muslims and Imans have absolutely no standing to complain about a lack of sensitivity or infringement upon their right to worship.

Make no mistake, this is a monument to an attack by extremist - it is not an attempt to build understanding or a bridge to anyone.