Ground Zero on the Tolerance Issue
“…Until now, I’ve refrained from writing on the issue because the way the controversy has moved has been utterly predictable. First, the right opposes the mosque. Conservative figures like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich don’t like a mosque near ground zero. They say as much.
Then, in a Pavlovian response, the left embraces the mosque and proclaims itself more tolerant of religious freedom. But the left is not more tolerant of religious freedom. Only the left, you see, has the sagacity to recognize that, as New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd put it, Rauf is “the moderate Muslim we have allegedly been yearning for.”
What you’re seeing is the culture-war equivalent of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”…”