Fighting Anti-Liberty With Anti-Liberty?

A group called ACT! For America is asking people to sign a petition to prevent the building of a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center. Sounds like an American thing to do, right? Let's take a quick read through a couple of things, shall we? First, the petition page:

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We Oppose the Mosque at "Ground Zero"

Add your name to the group of 67,840 people who have already signed using the Internet!

Please read our petition below and fill in the form to add your signature. Then, forward this petition to your friends and family.

(ACT! For America Privacy Policy: We value your privacy and we will not give, rent or sell your contact information to any other organization. By providing us this information you help us ensure that everyone who signs the petition participates only once.)

We Stand With the Victims of 9/11,
We Oppose the Mosque at "Ground Zero," and
We Urge You to Join Us in Opposition

To Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Elected Officials of New York:

We the undersigned join with millions of Americans who are opposed to the founding of a mosque at the very site where Islamist jihadists destroyed the World Trade Center and took the lives of nearly 3,000 people.

We are opposed to the grotesque symbolism represented by the building of this mosque at "ground zero." We are especially appalled that those pushing for this mosque have designated its grand opening date for September 11, 2011 – the ten year anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

We are deeply disturbed by the insensitivity to the families of the victims of the 9/11 jihadist attack exhibited by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his supporters. We find it grossly hypocritical that Islamists and their allies repeatedly lecture Americans about the need to be "sensitive" to Muslims while Imam Rauf and his allies practice the height of intolerance and insensitivity through the blatant act of building a mosque at "ground zero."

We are offended by the views Imam Rauf has expressed about 9/11, such as his conspiratorial theory that Muslims did not perpetrate the 9/11 attack and that America's policies were partly to blame for the attack. Such views are a slap in the face of the victims and families of 9/11.

We find it repulsive that Imam Rauf and his followers and supporters would seek to build a mosque near ground zero promoting the same Sharia ideology that the 9/11 hijackers used as the justification for their act of unconscionable murder.

Therefore, in deference to the families of the 9/11 victims and their memory, we call upon the elected officials of New York to oppose the building of this mosque near ground zero and for them to urge Feisal Abdul Rauf and his followers to find another location for it.

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Let me summarize here: They want to use government power to prevent the members of a religion from assembling to practice that religion on a piece of private property (SEE NOTE).

Just for, as they say: shits and giggles, let's take a look at the First Amendment of the US Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The petitioners are not asking Congress to violate the First Amendment, but I think we can agree that one cannot claim to be defending "America" while going directly against the intent of the Constitution (especially when trying to use the power of government to do so).

Ironically, the banner at the top of the peition page tells us that ACT! For America is "Rising up in Defense of our Security, our Liberty, and our Values." Well, I am not sure who they mean by "our," but it is clearly not Americans. Their petition and the reasoning therein clearly violate Constitutional Liberty and Values. They might seem to be standing up for American security, but that pesky Constitution tells us that...

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"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

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So the ideals in the Constitution are supposed to "provide for the common defence" and "secure the blessings of Liberty." Apparently, ACT! For America disagrees with the Preamble and figures they have a better way of defending and securing America, that way being the dissolution of Constitutional values.

Why do I point this out and make a stink about stuff like this? Because I took an oath, which I have never rescinded, to "... support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; [and] ... bear true faith and allegiance to the same..." ACT! For America, like so many other faux-patriotic groups and individuals, sure sounds like an enemy of the Constitution to me.

XXX

NOTE: One may also consider their mention of "the grotesque symbolism represented by the building of this mosque" as being indicative of an attack on freedom of speech, as well. Your call.

PS - I could make more comments about some of the things expressed in the petition, but my intent was to keep it in the context of the values expressed in the US Constitution.