Mosque controversy a major setback for United States

President Obama, after saying that building a mosque at Ground Zero fit our "commitment to religious freedom," backtracked, saying he wasn't commenting on the 'wisdom' of building it so close to 'hallowed ground.'

A Fox News poll showed that while 61 percent of Americans believe that Cordoba House has a constitutional right to build near Ground Zero, 64 percent believe it is not appropriate to do so.

Does Obama's hedging show a lack of ethical convictions? Does Hamas' endorsement change the debate? What is behind public opposition to the site? Can you believe in religious freedom but not believe the mosque is appropriate?

I think this controversy has taken the United States back more than a hundred years. It is not because of what the President said or did not say but because of what unscrupulous politicians and equally unscrupulous media has done. Sometimes I wonder if the media moulds the minds of the people or manipulates it. The media thrives on controversies and so do unscrupulous politicians who are only concerned about winning the next elections by whatever means possible. There is nothing religious about this controversey. It is all manipulated by the media and the politicians with an eye on viewership and the elections.

The president had rightly put the whole matter in proper context. The Constitution guarantees every American the right to build on private property after they meet the local buildings codes and requirements. Ground Zero is as hallowed as any cemetry or burial ground in the country. Do we allow commercial activities in cemetries? Who knows what else is happening around Ground Zero where people work and live? What about crime and maybe even prostitution? Do these activities not desecrate the hallowed grounds. By raising a storm over nothing, those who seek to benefit from this have invited groups like Hamas and, perhaps even Al Qaida will chip in with their pennies worth.

Now the US is doomed if they allow the mosque to be built and doomed if they don't.

The world will have one more reason to sneer at us and our lack of respect for the Constitutions and the so-called freedoms if we do not allow the mosque. If we do, then Hamas and Al Qaida and every terrorist is going to say how they swayed the Americans to their wishes. The only people who will benefit are the media with their ratings and the politicians with their rantings who can glibly lie to unsuspecting people and sway their votes.

By Arun Gandhi | August 16, 2010; 4:17 PM ET Save & Share:
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"Now the US is doomed if they allow the mosque to be built and doomed if they don't."

Thanks for your comments Arun, but this is not the first time that we have been doomed. The war against the British king, the war against slavery, the Great Depression, the war against Japan after Pearl Harbor, the war against Nazi Germany the Cold War. We are still here.

"I think this controversy has taken the United States back more than a hundred years. It is not because of what the President said or did not say but because of what unscrupulous politicians and equally unscrupulous media has done."

Indeed they are unscrupulous. But it will not take us a hundred years to recover our senses. The process is already under way, and you are helping things along. And if, as Winston Churchill, put it we always do the right thing, but only after exhausting every other possibility, at least we will have done the right thing at end.

Still, I wonder if you know of Christian churches are in Saudi Arabia? No? When do you think they will do the right thing?

Arun Gandhi

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Mosque controversy a major setback for United States

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