Mosque near Ground Zero has America divided

Washington, DC: The national motto of the United States is e pluribus unum - out of many, one. In most of our lifetimes, no moment has exemplified this better than 9/11.
 
Now, almost a decade later, a proposal to build an Islamic centre and mosque - two blocks from the World Trade Centre (WTC) site - has sharply divided the country.

The protest pit the voices of rationality, who stress America's constitutional tradition of strict separation of church and state, against the emotions of millions of Americans, who view the events of that day and the years since as a long drawn out war between America and Islam.

President Barack Obama has fueled the controversy by weighing in. First on the side of the rationalists, as might be expected, from a former professor of constitutional law.

Speaking at a Ramadan dinner at the White House, President Obama forcefully endorsed building a mosque near Ground Zero, saying the country's founding principles demanded no less.

But intellectual courage, though a virtue in the academy, can be dangerous in politics. A day later, perhaps bowing to public pressure, came another statement the US President clarified, "I was not commenting, and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding."

With this gesture, which came at the start of a ferociously competitive election season, Obama opened himself up for criticism, not just from conservative Republicanism but also from many Democrats.

Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, who is said to have presidential ambitions for 2012, accused the president of "pandering to radical Islam."

A National Affairs Editor for the Daily Beast Tunku Varadarajan says, "Obama has made life very difficult for his own party and the candidates who are running for elections in November he has basically ensured now that the mosque is an electoral issue."

Even lawmakers from his own party have been distancing themselves from the President.

The Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, came out against the proposed mosque Reid is battling to hold on to his seat is Nevada, where his Republican opponent has demanded that he take a position on the Mosque controversy.

The portrayal of Obama as an ivory tower intellectual, out of touch with the average American, is key to the Republican plan of attack for November. The faltering recovery, and resultant discrediting of his economic policy, which was crafted by a group of Ivy League college professors, makes this an easy job on the economic front. Now, the president appears to have handed his rivals the perfect opportunity to broaden their attack. Republicans claim Obama is out of touch with America and particularly insensitive to the families of the September 11 victims. Polls show 70 percent of Americans are not in favor of the mosque being built near ground zero.

"Whatever his personal views are one thing is very clear - America has spoken. Seventy percent of the Americans are against this project not because we don't value religious freedom but because we believe that in a free society citizens should exercise discretion and this project is inappropriate, insensitive and inflammatory," said Brett Joshpe, from American Center for Law and Justice.

The President's supporters, on the other hand, claim that Obama knowingly waded into treacherous political waters as he has to serve the Constitution and all Americans - including millions of Muslim citizens.

Professor Michael Doyle, Harold Brown Professor of US Foreign and Security Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University explains, "His job is not to be a weather wane reflecting where the winds are blowing the strongest. His job is to defend the Constitution. It might be a political blunder but he has obligations to protect the constitution that over ride those."

Barack Obama won the 2008 Presidential elections, despite only two years in the Senate and no executive experience in government or outside, largely because he was able to offer the American electorate a sense of hope, in an environment of considerable economic and political uncertainty. In November, he will face the dual challenge of an environment he has been unable to change, and a political honeymoon that has clearly come to an end. Democrats are trying to re-focus the campaign debate on the numerous policy accomplishments of the administration, and to emphasise the fact their effect will be clear with the passage of time. However, Obama will need to summon all his campaign skills, and convince America he is still the outsider who can change Washington for them, if he is to avoid these elections becoming a national thumbs-down to his presidency thus far.