Barack Obama, a man of principle

President Obama today used the occasion of a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan to speak up in support of building a mosque and Islamic center two blocks from where the World Trade Center stood, and on a spot occupied by a building that was damaged on 9/11. “Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” Obama declared. But, he added, “as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”
With almost 70 percent of the public opposed to building the mosque at this location, Obama deserves credit for standing up for what he thinks is right. He is a man of principle.
Unfortunately, his principles are profoundly misguided. They seem to include a desire to accommodate Muslims so powerful that it overrides any sense of decency and extends to an imam (Feisal Abdul Rauf) who hates America (we brought 9/11 on ourselves, he claims) and sympathizes with, or at least is unable to denounce, terrorists (e.g., Hamas).
It is shocking that an America president has no problem with the likes of Abdul Rauf putting up a mosque on what he stipulates is hollowed ground. Obama even suggested that construction of the mosque there is a good thing because it stands in contrast to the intolerance of jihadists. Does Obama think we need to allow a Muslim cleric to stick his finger in the eyes of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 in order to distinguish ourselves from al Qaeda?
I’m confident that America did not believe it was electing such a president, although the warning signs were there for those who were paying attention. In any event, the cat is certainly out of the bag now. So maybe in two years we’ll be able to purge Obama from our system.
If not, the ground really will have shifted. And that has been Obama’s objective all along.