ON FRIDAY President Obama appeared to give a controversial New York mosque a ringing endorsement. On Saturday, in the face of an avalanche of Republican criticism, he appeared to back off. This is primary season and the last thing Democrats want is for their president to be “brave” on an issue on which voters are split two to one against him.
On August 3rd, a New York commission cleared the way for an Islamic community centre to be built two blocks north of where the World Trade Center once stood. The planned 15-storey facility, to be known as Cordoba House, will be a community and cultural centre for the area’s Muslims and will include a prayer space, a performing arts centre, a swimming pool and a restaurant. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Muslim leader behind the project, who has publicly condemned 9/11, says he wants the centre to help “bridge and heal a divide” between Muslims and other religious groups.
Mr Obama made his first comments on Friday night at a Ramadan celebration in the White House, referring to the trauma of the 9/11 as “unimaginable”. “Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” he said, but insisted “as a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practise their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship . . . in Lower Manhattan”. On Saturday he made it clear, however, that “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there”.
Among those who have criticised even the partial endorsement are Sarah Palin, Republican leader of the House John Boehner, Newt Gingrich, and leading Irish-American and New York member of the House, Peter King, who attacked the president for succumbing to political correctness. But the city’s popular mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has faced down public opinion, strongly endorsing the mosque.
Mr Bloomberg is right. New York must not pander to those who insist on associating all of Islam with the crime of 9/11. To do so, to promulgate that lie, would be the greater insult to the memory of those who died. And, most importantly, it would be to undermine the critical task of reaching out to majority, moderate Islam, not only in the US but around the world, of which Mr Obama spoke so eloquently in Cairo last year. The US does not need a “Swiss” moment. It is bigger and more generous and its commitment to inclusiveness is more profound than that.