The Economist published a poll a couple of days ago that asked (among other things):
“Do you think that Muslims have a constitutional right to build a mosque … near the World Trade Center site?”
The question wasn’t “Is it wise?” or “Does it make you uncomfortable?”, or “Do you hate the idea, and hate Muslims?”. It was “Do they have a constitutional right?”
Barely 50% of Americans said “Yes”.
This makes me depressed about the future of freedom in this country, that 50% of the population doesn’t believe in full freedom of religion for everyone.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Ken // Aug 26, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I could not agree with you more Daryl… the precedent this would set to deny a religion the right to build a facility and gather would be devastating to our constitutional rights. The slippery slope this would send us down…
I am uncomfortable with the idea of the mosque but let’s follow the money to Saudi Arabia and define this in a different light… they have the right.
2 Donna // Aug 26, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I heard that polls conducted a couple weeks ago showed that over 2/3 of Americans thought they had a right. I wonder if the recent rhetoric has made folks change their minds?
3 Richard // Aug 27, 2010 at 5:49 am
Right on, Daryl. Americans point to one of their founding principals being freedom of religion, then support the state promoting or restricting one religion or another. Maybe all natural born Americans need to go through citizenship class just like naturalized citizens do.
4 Don // Aug 27, 2010 at 7:17 am
I had heard that the majority believed they had a Constitutional right but the majority also wished they would build it somewhere else.
I do have to say it’s not working out quite like Rauf has said he wanted it to. He’s said he’s a proponent of improving relations but this Mosque doesn’t seem to be helping that.