Not so simple

The ADL has been on the butt end of a lot of criticism lately for its position on the proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks.

Its position is that the Cordoba Initiative has a constitutional right to build at the center, but, given the sensibilities of some of the families of the victims, it might not be wise to do so. It also wants funding for the center to be transparent (although, such funding has hardly started, and the Initiative has guaranteed transparency.)

The ADL has pointed out, correctly, that it has repeatedly repudiated the bigots who have attacked the proposed center, and anti-Muslim bigotry in general. This has gotten lost (not just for the ADL, see what happened to Gov. Paterson and Howard Dean.) There’s even a with-us-or-agin’-us rationale for why such nuance gets lost, outlined two days ago in a letter to the New York Times by officials of the ACLU and its New York chapter:

Many opponents of the proposed Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, including some who demonstrated there on Sunday, insist that they support religious freedom but still believe that it is insensitive to build the center two blocks from ground zero.

At first glance, this view may seem reasonable. It captures the enduring trauma of 9/11 while recognizing a constitutional right to religious freedom. But on closer reflection, this stance rests on a prejudice and intolerance that contradict religious freedom.

Those who call the project insensitive must believe, consciously or not, that the people who would pray at the center are, by virtue of their faith alone, tainted by the terrorists who committed the 9/11 atrocities.

Preventing Muslims, or any religious group, from freely practicing their faith is unconstitutional and conflicts with our core American values. Those who oppose the Park51 project have every right to speak their minds, but in the end, discrimination is a losing proposition, and obeying the Constitution is not optional.

We must not assist those who seek to undermine our nation by betraying our most fundamental American liberties.

Translation: Nuance? Fuhgeddabahtit.

Would that it were so, it would make my job much easier and I could paint bold strokes, Fer’ and Agin’, and write perpetually in Hatfield-McCoy cliches.

Alas, it ain’t so. The ADL just issued this statement about yesterday’s stabbing of a New York cabbie, whose only sin was being Muslim:

The attack on Ahmed Sharif was a brutal hate crime and we condemn it in the strongest terms. No person should ever be targeted because of their religion or ethnicity, and there is no justification for singling out Muslims.
 
It is especially disturbing that this attack occurred amid an atmosphere of elevated anti-Muslim sentiment surrounding the Ground Zero controversy. No matter the passions stirred up by an issue, resorting to anti-Muslim bigotry and violence is unacceptable.
 
New York is a diverse city of equally diverse opinions, but we must not allow these differences to overshadow the basic tenets of mutual respect and human dignity. We applaud the NYPD for bringing bias crime charges in this case, and urge that the suspect be prosecuted to the full extent allowed under the state’s hate crime law.