• CLIMATE CHANGE AND GOP STUPIDITY

    Jon Stewart Rips Right-Wingers A New One
  • RIGHT-WINGERS BLAMING THE VICTIMS

    When Unarmed Blacks Are Killed By Cops
  • STILL NO SCANDAL

    No Wrongdoing With Benghazi
  • EBOLA AND ISIS

    Right-Wingers Fuel Racism And Paranoia

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

They've Completely Forgotten

Lindaman writes:

The Left has never really been that keen on following the Constitution as written because they feel it is a "living document" (meaning that they believe the Constitution means what they say it means, regardless of whether it's grounded in the Constitution).

Oh, this should be good. We're already aboard the right-wing Hurr Train!



Now, the Left has taken the Constitution to a whole new level with the "community center" that is proposed to be built a few blocks from Ground Zero.

Notice how Lindaman put the words "community center" in quote marks, implying something deceitful and sinister. But he won't actually say it, because even he knows what horseshit that is.

The First Amendment gives Muslims the right to build the mosque/community center under the Establishment Clause, and if you disagree, you're anti-Muslim, stupid, or any number of other derogatory labels.

Aaaand, Lindaman starts with a strawman.

I do like how he puts mosque/community center with a slash. That way he can implant the word "mosque" in people's heads and can later backtrack and say "But I also said it was a community center! :-)" Even though it's not a mosque.

But the thing of it is...the First Amendment doesn't state or imply a right to build anything, let alone a mosque/community center.


The Left's main argument is that the construction of a mosque/community center is an extension of the right to worship.

Not really, no.

There are two main problems with that argument. First, a person of faith doesn't require a building to worship openly. In my faith, all that's required to establish a church is two people sharing their common faith.

...In fantasies.

Besides, given that there's a mosque within walking distance of the proposed site of the mosque/community center, there are options that are readily available for their religious needs. If the mosque/community center isn't built, nobody is denied their right to worship. It's not the building that makes the right to worship; it's the exhibition of faith.


And where has the Left said it wasn't?

Second, the Left is being contradictory with its position on the mosque/community center. When it's come to expressions of Christian or Jewish faith, the Left has firmly come down against public expressions of faith, especially on public land. Their logic in those instances is that people of faith should pray only in churches and synagogues since someone might be offended at a public expression of faith. In short, you can pray all you want, just not where people might take offense.

And building a mosque/community center where Muslim prayer will be allowed within a couple of blocks of an act of extremist Muslim terrorism isn't offensive?

Because the community center is not on public land. It's private property.

Put simply, the Left has no real Constitutional grounds under the Establishment Clause on which to defend the building of the mosque/community center.

There may be other Constitutionally-based arguments that could be made,

Gee, ya think?

but suggesting that the building of a mosque/community center is an extension of freedom of religion is intellectually dishonest and a gross misinterpretation of the First Amendment.

They are American citizens. They have the permits. It's legal for them to build there, even if it was a full-blown mosque.

When those "America Hating" Leftists, as you call them, talk about Freedom Of Religion, we're not just talking about The Establishment Clause.

We're also talking about this: If it was a Christian church being built there, you wouldn't be trying to stop it. Because it has an Islamic base, you're trying to stop it.

You're trying to stop something from being built, that the builders have every right to build, because it's a religion you don't like. And you're even trying to get the government to intervene on that.

You. Can't. Do. That.

This. Is. America.

The government can't favor one religion over another.

You guys really have forgotten what it means to be an American, haven't you?