I'm having problems with many right wing declarations about the GZ mosque that go something like "we're not saying they can't build a mosque, just don't build it there" - to me this is illogical and inherently contradictory, a consequence, as I've said, of wanting to criticize the mosque without criticizing the religion it represents - and I imagine that hardline Islamists understand how this weakness [freedom of religion, that is - Islam sponsors no freedom of religion and therefore has no problem with the Koran calling followers of 'the book' unclean etc] makes America vulnerable and exploit it accordingly. Critics of the mosque don't want to get into an argument based on suggesting Christianity is better than Islam and thusly be lead by reasoning to the reality that Christianity is indeed 'better' than Islam but not because it's more noble or glorious or sanctified or truer to the intentions of God [all of which are not demonstrable] - but rather because, relative to Islam, history has made it safe, purged it of the worst tendencies endemic to organized 'faith' - that is of course if one believes in democracy based on open markets and the exercise of a free conscience by an individual - if you're interested in one of the various strains of autocracy and state control of all and sundry then a religion not circumscribed or reduced by an inconveniently evolved history would work nicely - Islam, for instance.
In the same vein, this inability to understand or accept what is being implied by the license granted to freedom of religion by the constitution also leads those in opposition to the mosque to make the absurd declaration that until Islam reforms itself it's unreasonable to expect Americans to welcome it with open arms - a fair enough point I guess except that it lives in complete denial of the fact that Christianity's own progress to reform left in its wake war, predation, abuse in the service of power and untold other miseries - Islam cannot simply reform itself, at least not without raising havoc and upheaval in the process - I admit that without reform I don't see how any true or lasting comity can exist between Islam and the West, but to imagine the price to be paid for such a turn will not be high and fraught with danger is, to say the least, naive.
