Presidential Cowardice

Politically, Barack Obama can only lose on the issue of building a mosque near ground zero. But it is precisely because demagogues continue to exploit the old fear of terrorist attacks that this is the time for plain talk.

One can sympathize with Obama: Two-thirds of Americans reject the idea of a Muslim community center near ground zero. The mob doesn’t want a “9/11 victory mosque.” Others are just uncomfortable with the concept. In a political sense, Obama can only lose on this matter. One-third of all Americans already believe that Obama himself is a Muslim and among Republicans, it’s a staggering 57 percent.

Because demagogues continue to exploit the terror threat in order to brazenly stir up a fear of Islam, it’s high time for the president to take a clear stand. This has long since ceased to be an issue just for New Yorkers and the “sacred” soil of ground zero. From Temecula, Calif. to Sheboygan, Wis., Muslim communities are seeing themselves confronted by protests as soon they want to build a house of worship. And what does Obama do? He defends freedom of religion for Muslims in general, while making it known that he, too, has personal reservations about building a mosque two blocks away from the site of the former World Trade Center.

The president is playing tactical games instead of taking a stand. In so doing, his cowardice ignores everyone who wants to have this issue openly debated. We would like to hear what the driving force behind the community center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has to say on the subject. Instead, the State Department sends him on a junket to Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Rauf, who is committed to a dialogue between cultures, has been instructed by the Obama administration to report to the people there about American religious tolerance and the lives of Muslims in the United States.