China Beats Japanese Economy, and Thoughts On New York Mosque

So, for starters there's this bit of important news. A lot of their economic strength, according to the article, comes from how much debt the U.S. owes to them. The nice thing is that they've come into all of this purchasing power now while they still have a lot of room to develop. That money can go towards infrastructure, urban development, building schools, so on and so forth. Not bad for a country with "a fifth of the world’s population and insufficient resources." Glad to see China is progressing well.

And then there's this week's non-issue, the Mosque at Ground Zero. I call it a non-issue because in my mind there doesn't seem to be a decent reason for this to be legally questionable. Government can't just opt not to allow a Mosque to be built there for purely religious reasons. You see, the First Amendment's "Freedom of Religion" aspects come with two distinct clauses, the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.

Establishment Clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"
Free Exercise Clause: "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"

If the government steps in and prohibits the building of this Mosque, then it is in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by definition. Congress would make a law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. As a member of the smallest and most hated religious minority in America (and perhaps even the world), I'm pretty sensitive about this sort of thing. I'm definitely not pleased.

That being said, I'm confused as to how someone thought building a Mosque next to Ground Zero would be a good idea. Not that I believe such a bigoted opinion is right, as I feel that it isn't fair to stereotype Muslims as terrorists and suicide bombers. I may be harsh about the Middle East and Islam given the sheer volume of terrorist organizations they've got listed (see for yourself), but that in no way speaks for the majority. Yes, I've vocally stated that I'm very upset the moderate elements of Islam don't do more to combat the violent extremist image. That's still no excuse for typecasting Muslims.

Now that that's out of the way, I do feel it's only fair to point out that when grieving, people aren't exactly the most "rational." People are upset about the ordeal. So I really have to wonder about the mindset of the group that wanted to erect an Islamic building in that location. Maybe they had a permit to build there prior to 9/11, and in that case then I'd be very sorry that the terrorist hijackers have made things much more difficult on them than need be. Defending the building of that Mosque would be a matter of protecting finances as well as being right, which is twice the reason to do so. But if not, then I'd figure someone in the community had to think "Gee, there might be some backlash for this decision. Maybe some left over anger and resentment." Which makes it almost seem like trolling. Not that they wouldn't be in the right, mind you. They would still completely deserve the place like everyone else. I'm just jaded and cynical, so this comes off as suspicious in my mind. Then again, I've not really met the leaders of the Islamic community that want the Mosque built, so I can't speak for their character. At the end of the day, it's all speculation, and irrelevant speculation at that. Point is, whether you're talking about rightness in the legal sense or in the not-being-a-bigot sense, there doesn't stand much of a reason not to let the Mosque be built.