Obama Stands Up for the 9/11 Mosque

Somewhat shockingly, Obama's approach to the Ground Zero mosque issue has emerged as a libertarian one.

Somewhat shockingly, Obama's approach to the Ground Zero mosque issue has emerged as a libertarian one. In prepared remarks about it on Friday, he didn't feel the need to assert any (false) platitudes about "interfaith outreach" or defend the particular Muslims behind the initiative -- he simply pointed out that people are free to build what they please on their own property: ...[A]s a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. The critics of the mosque weren't called racist or "Islamophobic," and the mosque was not defended on the merits of its goodness. Obama merely asserted that our laws grant people the right to do what they please with their own property.

Rep. Peter King's response was puzzling for its irrelevance: "It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much." King and Obama, then, seem to agree that they have the right to build the mosque, which is really the key issue at hand here. Obama didn't ground his support for allowing the mosque to be built on the basis of the upstanding character of the imams behind it. The only relevant factor in allowing the mosque's development, as Obama correctly pointed out, is whether the property was acquired legally. Whether one is personally offended by its being built -- as I am -- has nothing to do with whether it should be permitted. One's rights don't evaporate upon the majority taking offense. Our rights exist primarily to defend not the majority, after all, but the offensive, the radical, the shocking, and the outlandish. Obama and I diverge drastically when it comes to the nature of Islam, and his respect for property rights has not always been particularly stellar. But on this issue, he is absolutely correct and the right is absolutely wrong.