Building a Mosque in Manhattan and Lessons Learned from The West Wing

The debate around building a mosque and community center near the site of the World Trade Center and the apparent inability of a vast number of Americans to understand the 1st amendment remind me of a clip from the episode of West Wing (“Isaac and Ishmael”) that was aired following 9/11.

The analogy that Josh Lyman lies out is that Islamic Extremist is to Islamic as the KKK is to Christianity.  To me, this makes sense.  This is about people who are distorting faith to justify murder and terror.  So, I have to wonder if anyone would oppose the construction of a christian church near the site of any KKK violence?  Seems to me the South would have fewer churches today.  Opponents think they are justifying their religious bigotry by wrapping themselves in the American flag, but they’re doing it by undermining our Bill of Rights.