The Ground Zero Mosque And The Slippery Slope To Injustice

from Libertarian Minds:

The Ground Zero Mosque and the Slippery Slope to InjusticeAugust 18th, 2010 → 6:31 pm @ James Padilioni Jr


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I have been growing more and more perplexed as the debate over the so-called ground zero mosque has raged through the blogosphere. What I find most troubling is not the details of the debate, but the fact that we are even having one at all. Stripping the story of its emotional baggage the situation boils down to this: the right of people to worship as they choose, to speak freely, and the rights they have over their private property. If a person believes in individual rights, then the debate should begin and end right there. However, when one layers on the emotional context of the 9/11 attacks and the Islamic centers proximity to ground zero, the debate ensues.



But should emotions outweigh individual rights? Is there a right to not be offended or repulsed? The other day I came across a quote from Voltaire that reads “truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust”. As I thought about this quote it began to put the entire mosque controversy in perspective to me. We have allowed Islamic jihad to make us absurd, and as a result we are engaging in unjust acts-not just in words here at home, but in drone attacks and killing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.



The fear-mongering and propaganda that our government has given life to in a post 9/11 world has lead to the complete abandonment of basic civil liberties, many of which are hallmarks of the founding of this republic- the suspension of habeus corpus, the intrusion into privacy legalized through the PATRIOT act, torturing detainees, and most recently the authorization of American citizens to be assassinated with no due process, and no trial by jury. Also, the conflation of the specific group of Muslims with the Cordoba Institute and the 19 hijackers of 9/11 as one in the same is dangerous in and of itself. Painting a whole group of people with one broad brush is at best stereotyping, and at worst xenophobia. Antiwar.com has an article today that basically puts forward the point that if all we learned from 9/11 is that “they” hate “us” for our freedoms, then we haven’t learned anything at all.



We have become absurd. We have abandoned all reason, and have become blinded by emotions and sentiment, and those passions are making us unjust. Rights must reign supreme to the passions of men. I do not want to live in a country where the emotional tyranny of the majority tramples the rights of the minority underfoot. As Benjamin Franklin wisely expressed, “If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”





About the author

James Padilioni wrote 9 articles on this blog.



James is currently a 4th year history major at West Chester University. He is a strong believer in the principle that political freedom and economic freedom are inseparable, and as such advocates for a strong free market, the unalienable rights of man, and extremely limited government