The Brewing Pogrom

As others have pointed out, there is great irony in the continuing uproar over the proposed "Ground Zero" mosque. In theory, the mosque represents everything that Teabaggers and other assorted right-wing crackpots purport to stand for: bedrock constitutional principles such as freedom of speech and worship, as well as the idea that small government entities (e.g., community boards and city planning departments) are best equipped to make and enforce local laws (e.g., zoning decisions about, say, where a mosque may be built). The greatest irony, though, is that the uproar over the mosque project has effectively quashed the possibility that it will not go forward.

Let's say this whole thing had stayed relatively quiet, low-key, and above all civil. Let's say a group of well-intentioned but sincerely concerned citizens had come forward and spoken with Feisal Abdul Rauf, the moderate imam behind the project, and expressed the idea that feelings were still too raw for such a grand Islamic structure to be built so close to the site of the 9/11 attacks. Maybe it would have changed nothing, but maybe some compromise could have been reached.

Now, however, any such compromise would either not go far enough to assuage the lunatic fringe or, worse, inspire them to commit even greater affronts to Muslim dignity and American values: "Look, guys, we've got them terrorists on the run. Let's finish 'em off!" The mosque must be built, if only to show that the bullies don't own the playground.

As a Jew, the Solipsist feels no affection for radical Islamists who advocate the a medieval worldview or the destruction of anyone who fails to acknowledge the holiness of Allah. But as a Jew, the Solipsist feels even more uneasy when he hears the baying of the mob, shrieking about the "dirty Muslim." We've seen that movie. We know how it ends.