September 11, 2010
by Rev. N. J. L'Heureux, Jr.
Executive Director
Queens Federation of Churches

The general media have given over their headlines to politicians and others arguing that the planned Cordoba House, a multi-story Islamic Cultural Center, should not be allowed to be constructed at mid-block on Park Place. The planned facility is something quite like a YMCA which would contain community recreational and meeting space for culture and art events – and separate prayer rooms on upper floors for Islamic, Christian and Jewish prayer.

Muslims are being savaged in the headlines today. But the subtext is an attack on religious liberty in this nation. And that also affects Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and members of every Faith.

As Christians, our Scriptures teach us to love one another, to welcome the stranger/foreigner in our midst with hospitality, to recognize in the face of every human being a child made in God's Holy image. We must resist the hysterical demonization of God's children of Islam just as we would surely object to similar attacks on our fellow followers of Christ.

The public complaint claims the Cordoba House is being built too close to "Ground Zero," the World Trade Center site where nearly 3,000 were killed on September 11, 2001, by suicide operatives of Al-Qaeda, a group of crazed, Muslim extremists. Some claim that atomized remains of some of those killed that day may be lingering on the property in that area and, therefore, this is "sacred ground." Even though the ash was ever more present throughout the nearby financial district, Wall Street which brought us predatory lending and financial meltdown apparently does no violence to this sacred ground, but a place of Islamic worship would. Who are the crazed today?

One should also take note that Park Place is a 3-block long street which is two blocks north of and parallel to Vesey Street, the northern boundary of the WTC site. It runs from Broadway to Greenwich Street. No one but a confused drunk who had lost his way would walk by 51 Park Place on his way to or from the World Trade Center site. The Twin Towers where all of the deaths occurred are three blocks further removed. The "sacred ground" argument – if it were serious – could be used to preclude all building in lower Manhattan as well as in Brooklyn Heights as debris from the fallen buildings blew across the East River and was discovered, in varying degree, over much of the City of New York and nearby New Jersey.

I make these points because location is not the real objection. It is the fig leaf trying to hide naked bigotry.

The vicious fight against the "Mosque at Ground Zero" is being waged to attack and demonize Islam itself. It is a part of the ongoing effort since 9/11 to paralyze the population with fear. And it is a cruel campaign being waged in many communities across the nation. The demurrers of politicians using the megaphone of extremist radio and television personalities ring hollow.

Muslims were among those killed in the attack of 9/11. And Muslims have been twice victimized by such accusations that all Muslims are "terrorists." To be sure, the suicidal fanatics who flew the planes into the Twin Towers were terrorists, but they hardly represent all Muslims. Would we assume that terrorist tribes like the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Nation turn all Protestant Christians into terrorists? Or the violence of a New York Rabbi, Meir Kahane, and his Jewish Defense League in a former generation renders all Jews terrorists? Of course not! Why, then, can we not be as discerning so as to separate out the extremist fringe elements from the peaceable majority when it come to Islam?

Mayor Bloomberg and most of the local New York officials are to be commended for following a responsible path approving the building of the Cordoba House, a path which zoning and planning officials in many communities, alas, do not follow. Both the Mayor and President Obama have correctly pointed out that Religious Liberty in the United States stands four-square for the right of every citizen peaceably to assemble for worship and to exercise the traditions of their Faith in community. They cannot be denied the right to build and use facilities for these purposes.

Religious Liberty, for many of the politicians and polemicists of the airwaves, appears to be merely a speed bump to be jumped in their effort to score political points by exacerbating the fear of the public at the expense of Muslims. Wrapping themselves ever more tightly in the flag as if to nurse real wounds from nine years ago, they have decided that our Constitution and its Bill of Rights ought not get in the way. This is wrong and it is irresponsible. We cannot allow it to succeed.

There are those who appear dedicated to marginalizing religion – even to the point of trying to prevent the construction and expansion of churches, synagogues and mosques.

All too often, applications to build or expand a church (yes, read that a Christian church) are rejected by local officials who sanctimoniously declare that the congregation is, of course, welcome in the community – just not on this site!

The Vision United Methodist Church, a Korean congregation, had several applications rejected for building a church, school and community center in the Village of Long Grove, Illinois, before buying property outside of the Village – only to have the Village annex that property and zone it residential in order to continue to restrain the development of this congregation.

The Archdiocese of Denver acquired property for a new church in rural Foxfield, Colorado. Before building the main church, the parish adapted a small building, intended for the rectory, for use as a chapel while preparations for building a permanent church across the street were ongoing. The Town of Foxfield adopted a bizarre ordinance making it unlawful to park more than five motor vehicles for more than fifteen minutes within 1,000 feet of a private residential property on more than two occasions during any thirty day period.

In New York City, the Landmarks Preservation Commission placed the property of the West Park Presbyterian Church under its control earlier this year. The congregation can only renovate or expand the facility if the Commission permits. This interrupted the planned renovation of the Church on Amsterdam Avenue at 86th Street and the redevelopment of the adjacent parish house. In declaring it a regulated "landmark," several Commissioners commented that they were anxious to find someone to take over the building from the Church in order to "preserve" it – in other words, force the Church out of its own building.

One can easily recognize in the face of such outrageous interference with the ministry of Roman Catholic, United Methodist, Presbyterian and congregations of other major denominations the extreme danger of likely bias and bigotry when the applicant is an unfavored religious group.

As these abuses became more widespread, Congress voted unanimously ten years ago to enact the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, known by its acronym RLUIPA. This law requires a zoning or landmarking agency to show a "compelling" governmental interest when its action imposes a "substantial burden" on religious exercise. This is the same standard that Courts routinely use in resolving Free Speech or Free Press claims under the First Amendment.

Anthony Gill, a political science professor at the University of Washington has written extensively about some of these conflicts across the country. Local zoning boards and landmark commissions, invested with significant discretion in making decisions, have become evermore creative in ways in denying the applications of religious bodies. A recent paper, Septics, Sewers and Secularization: How Government Regulation Flushes Religiosity Down the Drain, is available online at Association of Religion Data Archives, http://www.thearda.com/rrh/papers/guidingpapers/gill.asp.

He has concluded that negative decisions arise, usually, because of one or more factors: Fewer taxes will accrue to the government from a religious facility. A religious school may reduce public school enrollment, thereby deceasing state financial assistance. Individuals in the community play the NIMBY card, resisting any additional development in their immediate area. And then there is thinly veiled animus toward new, small, or different religious groups.

The support and welcome for the Cordoba House by the various Faith communities in our City will help to demonstrate that we are able to enjoy – and share – the religious freedom that was so important to our Founders. They gave us the framework that has built a Nation with the most robust and most diverse expression of Faith in the whole world. That is a gift to celebrate, together!

Queens Federation of Churches
Rev. N. J. L'Heureux, Jr., also serves as Moderator of the Committee on Religious Liberty of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA