A memorial to stupid

The Sufi Imam leading the group building the Park Place Islamic Center is not "behind the attacks" of the World Trade Center.

One would have hoped that using the victims of 9/11 for political gain would have ended after nine years. After all, we've stopped giving a shit about the health of those who first responded to those attacks.



One would be wrong.

Serwer writes

But look, here's the point: If Kristol's "decent Muslims" exist, there aren't many of them. And they couldn't possibly have any influence on Muslims who have read the Constitution, and therefore got the idea that they have the same rights as everyone else. Pretending to have the consent of "decent Muslims" doesn't change the fundamental principles at stake here, nor does it hide the fact that conservatives are demanding government intervene in the project not because of terrorism, not because of extremism, but because the builders happen to be Muslims. Even if opponents of the project produced a Muslim who met their decency standards, it's not as though American Muslims could collectively abdicate their rights to self-determination through a set of conservative-friendly spokespeople.

And, by the way, this isn't about offending the sensibilities of the millions of "decent (non-Muslim) Americans" passing the joint on their way to work or the Starbucks daring to serve lattes "in the shadow of the Trade Center." This is about 1.) capitalizing on what they perceive as "real America's" hatred for the practitioners of a certain Bronze Age faith; and 2.) hopes that this can tirelessly wear on and become another irrelevant midterm wedge issue...and not just in New York, folks.

After all, I don't recall Kristol's enraged reaction to Bush's warm relations with a "decent Wahhabi," but maybe I wasn't paying attention.

UPDATE: As I was saying, "not just in New York."