Save us from ourselves!

Rosh Hashanah is over, though lingering in my mind are its tunes (as well as my envy of those who can stand without resorting to their hands pulling on the pew in front or pushing down on the chair below. That ability is but a memory in my case.)

On Yom Kippur we are enjoined to ask forgiveness of those we might have offended. As a columnist, I have a greater opportunity to offend than most. I can’t tell you how many times people have stopped me to tell me that they enjoy my columns but that they disagree with this that or the other thing. Given the opportunity to talk, we do; if the opportunity isn’t there, I thank them and go on with whatever it was that I was doing. So, if there are those of you out there who by my columns I have offended, please don’t take them personally. The only difference between us is that I’ve been given this forum. You have the ability to write to me (many do) or to write directly to the newspaper which will print your letter if you ask. Dialogue is thus achieved with the opportunity of finding common ground. This is not exactly asking for forgiveness, but, hey, I’m imperfect and this is as close to asking for it as I can get this year. Maybe I’ll do better next year, given the opportunity.

OK, by a show of hands, how many of you think it is a really, really, really stupid thing for Muslims to want to build a mosque within debris range of Ground Zero? Whew, lots of hands. And how many of you think it’s OK to build the Park51 Muslim Community Center anywhere local planning authorities give permission? Just about the same number. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf , a Sufi Muslim, wants to build a 13 story Islamic Cultural Center two blocks from the World Trade Center. The facility would include a 500 seat auditorium, a theater, a performing arts center, a fitness center, a swimming pool, a basketball court and a child care area, a bookstore, a culinary school, an art studio, food courts, a September 11 memorial and, oh, by the way, a prayer space capable of accommodating between one and two thousand people. It’s this latter feature so close to Ground Zero that has raised the hackles of conservative opponents. (When Newt Gingrich argues that there shouldn’t be a Ground Zero mosque until a synagogue or church is built in Mecca he makes a very bad point. For all our faults, America is not, thank God, Saudi Arabia, and Mecca is a holy city while New York is as secular as it gets.)

Question: Do Muslims have a right to build a community center anywhere the law allows? The answer is yes. Does having the right to do something make it appropriate? Well, here we’re on shakier ground. The Taliban had the power, to destroy the Bamyan Buddhas in March, 2001, and so it did. The world is worse off for not having them any longer. Proponents of (a radical form of) Islam destroyed somebody else’s sacred object—as the Rev. Terry Jones was willing to destroy Korans. Why are we more upset with the one than the other? Perhaps because of the sacredness of the printed word, perhaps because Muslims take these things more seriously than Buddhists.

At Auschwitz, sacred (surely that’s not the right word, but what is?) to Jews, Carmelite nuns built a cross on land they owned, and Jews were outraged and eventually it was removed. (Is it a fair generalization to say that when Jews, who are few in number, are outraged they work the system, while when Muslims in the majority are—think here the Danish cartoons and the threatened Koran burning—they go berserk? Just asking.)

Another example of doing what you can but not thinking of the consequences (or caring about them) is when Ariel Sharon took it upon himself to walk on the Temple Mount. He was entitled to. There was no law to prevent an Israeli MK from walking anywhere in Jerusalem, but the fact that Sharon thought to bring a squad of bodyguards with him suggests that he knew he was stirring the pot. Is this the same thing as the Islamic Community Center near Ground Zero? In a way, it is. People with rights will want to exercise them regardless of consequence. And when the violence results they will point to the other guys and say, “Look, we didn’t cause the ruckus, they did.”

Avinu Malkenu, save us from ourselves.

On taking the oath of office using the Koran

Back in the day (which is, I gather, au courant for “Once upon a time” or “A long time ago” or simply “Once”) there was a kingdom that was the master of the world. Or so it seemed. Upon it the sun never set. Or so it seemed. Within this bastion of proper Victorian behavior there was harbored a small community of interlopers, people whose ilk had been expelled in 1290, returned in 1656 and a hundred years later were demanding equality.

In 1753, Parliament granted the small sect complete equality with Anglicans but popular opinion would not countenance such an action, and it was quickly revoked. In another hundred years, by 1858 to be exact, two prominent members of the sect, David Salomons and Lionel Rothschild, had each been often elected and as often denied permission to sit in the House of Commons. This because they could not take the required oath “on the true faith of a Christian.” They were finally seated when Parliament voted to strike the clause when Jews were inducted.

Somehow the empire managed to survive this assault on its ancient traditions yet another hundred years. Remarkable.

We have a similar issue. The voters of Minnesota's 5th congressional district elected Keith Ellison to Congress. Let me check my constitution. Yes, that seems to be their prerogative. One Virgil Goode, the Republican representing the 5th Congressional district of Virginia (no relation) has a problem. Not only is Ellison a peacenik, calling for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, he's also (gasp) a Muslim. Gevalt. Goode sent a letter to constituents which reads in part: “When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on [severely limiting] immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.” Oh, right, I forgot to mention it. Ellison had announced that when sworn in he'd have his hand on a copy of the Koran. Will troubles never cease?

OK, one thing at a time. The least important is that Emerson was born a Christian in Detroit and converted to Islam in college. (I've just checked the constitution again, and apparently this is legal.) Immigration is clearly not an issue here. It's beyond being a red herring. This particular fish is scarlet. More to the point, Goode either has not read, or he choses to ignore, the words of the constitution to which he is swearing, hand on Bible. Unfortunately for Mr. Goode's position, it reads in part: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Damn! What it does not say is that Members of Congress, or any other federal official, have to take an oath on the Bible. It also fails to make the Bible the one book upon which one may (or may not) rest one's left hand while raising his right. Double Damn!! Oh, those atheistic founders. Curses be on them.

We are, I hasten to remind, Mr. Goode and others, A SECULAR REPUBLIC. (As in, “What part of 'secular republic' don't you understand, Mr. Goode.”) Here's a nasty little secret that I share with Mr. Goode and with my readers: Islam is no more absurd than any other so-called revealed religion. That, at any rate, is what we can draw from reading the constitution.

Cleverly, Ellison took his oath on an English language Koran that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, of course, was an atheist who had such little respect for revealed religion that he truncated the New Testament by removing all references to the miraculous.

That sound you may just have heard was Mr. Jefferson rolling over in his grave. Not because Ellison borrowed his old Koran, but because Goode's district includes, of all places, the area in which Jefferson lived. Oh, the irony. And the swearing in on Bible or Koran? It's all for show, a photo-op. The real oath is with hands on the constitution.

The real danger to the republic is not Muslims pretending to swear on a Koran; it's fundamentalist bigots who have abandoned the principles for which the founders fought and later wrote the Constitution.