Topical question, indeed. Since similar labels have been thrown around over the cordoba mosque scandal.
David Harsanyi cuts right to the core of this divisive debate:
There are those who continue to make the facile claim that any protest over Park51 is a display in un-American intolerance and contempt for the Constitution. This position treats criticism of faith — religious institutions and symbols included — as tantamount to “bigotry.”
Prevailing opinion states that 70 percent of Americans are in opposition to this mosque. Yes, that would include Senator Harry Reid along with myself. Truly this is an extraordinary issue for a conservative to stand alongside Harry Reid. Yet some would view our stance as islamophobic and/or bigoted. In a recent interview Pelosi suggested the federal government should look into funding sources of those who oppose the mosque. Seriously, it has come down to this – let’s investigate the financial background of those in opposition? All of this adds up to a chilling assault on free speech. Long gone are the days when dissent was patriotic.
Jonah Goldberg finds the ‘perversely disfiguring narrative‘ of American anti-muslim bigotry to be nothing more than total bunk.
This is an incredibly tolerant country and, it has shown remarkable tolerance since 9/11. There has been no “anti-Muslim” backlash.
Cordoba Mosque – do we need to build it to prove that we are not bigots? Jonah reminds us that tolerance must work both ways:
In any decent society, tolerance must work both ways. If the majority is expected to show respect for a minority, the minority must also show some tolerance for the values of the majority. I’m no strict majoritarian – one with right on his side is the majority as far as I’m concerned. But this isn’t a clear-cut issue of right and wrong. It’s more complicated than that. It’s about deference and decency and common sense. And one of the things common sense should tell us is that it is not only unfair but terribly ill-advised to portray 7 out of 10 Americans as bigots when they are anything but.
Now, who will be the first to throw stones at this opinion?