Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on American Toleration and the Ground-Zero "Mosque"
It is painfully obvious that opposition to the Cordoba House, notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia, is motivated less by a desire to protect the memory of 9/11 victims and more by a knee-jerk suspicion of Muslims. But this is precisely why it is all the more remarkable that this resentment hasn't boiled over into active persecution—something that would hardly be possible any place else in the world. As Dalmia writes:
To this country's enormous credit, New York City's Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously rejected demands that it subvert local zoning ordinances allowing houses of worship in the area "as a right" to scuttle the project…
The losers have appealed the decision, although they know they have virtually no chance of prevailing. Yet so far they have resorted not to violence but persuasion to convince the couple to go elsewhere. Even Palin's silly tweets are infused with a sweet civility, asking Muslims to reconsider as a gesture of goodwill toward their fellow Americans.