New York Serves as Example of Tolerance

Right after the Sept. 11 attacks — with that still-smoldering mountain of rubble where the two majestic towers of the World Trade Center once stood — it would be crazy to imagine that someday the building of a mosque a few meters from the site would ever be allowed. Nine years later, however, the city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, in a ceremony with the Statue of Liberty standing suggestively in the background, announced the approval of the construction of a Muslim community center in that area, and in which there would be a mosque.

You can find deplorable passages in the history of America, like militant and violent racism. But it is indisputable that the system of representative democracy — with its characteristic maxim of guaranteeing individual rights which was established in that country by the ''founding fathers'' in the 18th century — is one of the most advanced political systems yet developed in modern times. It would even be understandable, given the pressure, if New York's City Hall denied the plea of the Muslim community. But it would bow to the myopic view that mistakes the Islamic terrorists groups as belonging to the religion of Islam.

As The New York Times pointed out yesterday in an editorial supporting the decision announced by Bloomberg, the Sept. 11 attacks — including the one targeting the Pentagon in Washington — were not religious acts but ''mass murder.'' And the attacks are repudiated by many Muslims.

Furthermore, if the government rejected the request, it would go against the law. In his announcement of the approval of the project, Bloomberg said that the government has no right to prevent someone from using their properties for religious purposes — no matter who they are. The New York Times challenged anyone to find anything in the U.S. Constitution that gives legal basis to prohibit the construction of a mosque, church, synagogue or any other type of temple.

The United States, and particularly the government of New York City, gives a great lesson of tolerance to the world — not excluding, of course, Latin America, where authoritarian political movements and religious groups have increasingly conquered space.

The religious intolerance in Brazil has given way to the creation of groups who fight for the civilized coexistence among followers of all faiths. In politics, the historic symbol of Latin American intolerance about divergent thinking is Cuba. In the last decade, however, political parties and movements of dictatorial ideology have strengthened in the continent, but they are introducing themselves with misleading speeches in defense of ''participatory democracy'' or ''direct'' and ''social justice.''

The region is home to the nest of some of these snakes, defenders of supposedly egalitarian models, but whose results have been violence, destruction of freedom and ruin — i.e. inflation, shortages and unemployment. On the island of the Castro brothers, the experiences of the Chavismo unite inside and outside Venezuela, with influence extending even to Argentina, and representatives of the Brazilian political party PT have also co-opted with organizations such as MST.

The example of tolerance and democracy given by New York should serve as a parameter for Latin America today. Especially since there will be developments in this latest attempt in the history of the continent to establish populist and authoritarian regimes.