7/27/2019 Mosque at Ground Zero

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Mosque Mosque at Ground Zero 

Hundreds of mosques exist in the state of New York, and the first Islamiccenter in New York City was built in the 1890’s. The proposed Park51Islamic Community Center is a private and abandoned building threeblocks away from Ground Zero. The project includes a basketball court,fitness center, theater, bookstore, and separate prayer rooms for other faiths. The preceding important information should be made available tothe public through television and print advertisements sponsored by theNew York City planning department. I agree with Mayor Bloomberg’sassessment that “this (controversy) is not unique to our time. We haveseen this before in relation to the building of synagogues in the mid1650’s.” The three core principles surrounding the resolution of the Park51

controversy include deliberation, political equality, and mass participation. 

 A deliberative democracy is a political decision-making process relyingheavily on public deliberation. James Bohman states that democratictheorists regularly discuss public deliberation without properly definingdeliberation. I define deliberation as careful, lengthy, and thoughtfulconsideration by a group. In Trilemma of Democratic Reform, Fishkindefines deliberation as “the process by which individuals sincerely weighthe merits of competing arguments in discussions together.” Fishkin argueslegitimate lawmaking can only arise through high quality public deliberation

in “good conditions for thinking about public issues.” The emotional four -hour “Listening to the City” meeting exemplifies high quality public

deliberation resulting in the approval of the Park51 project. 

The purpose of deliberation is to find reasons acceptable to all participants.Regarding the planned mosque near Ground Zero, Manhattan citizensshould be consulted, and “dialogue in a civil and respectful way.(Bloomberg)” Combining direct democracy and representative democracy,Fishkin employs the principle of deliberation in search of a logicallymotivated consensus. 

The Mayor of New York appoints employees of the planning department,and these employees ought to be a representative sample of the localcommunity. The planning commission is accountable to the New YorkMayor and City Council. I would organize the decision-making processthrough a town-hall style meeting involving the local planning department. Idefine local citizens as Manhattan residents. This constituency of localcitizens ought to have equal political access to voice their reasoning

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publicly at the city-planning meeting, because local citizens are directlyaffected by the outcome. Other groups that should be included indeliberation include project developers, families of 9/11 victims, and cityplanners. There should be a diversity of viewpoints and a limit on thenumber of persons deciding the Park51 controversy in order to avoid the

tyranny of the majority. 

Knight and Johnson discuss the principle of political equality and argueindividuals lose anonymity when speaking during deliberation. Knight andJohnson argue for substantive equality, which I define as the equalopportunity of political influence. In a deliberative democracy, citizens mustmake their reasoning publicly accessible to others, especially those whomay disagree. Even though public opinion largely opposed the project, it ismy contention that no publicly reasonable arguments exist for rejectingPark51. The controversial project ought to move forward if it does not

directly violate any federal, state, local or zoning laws. 

Tensions and trade-offs exist amongst the principles of deliberation,political equality, and mass participation. Deliberation and political equalitywould be worthless without participation. Gary Orren mentions that Alexisde Tocqueville chronicles a pluralist American society distinguished bywidespread participation and a tendency to form groups. The public,specifically local residents, ought to be able to participate, and their opinions should carry equal weight. However, it is difficult for local citizensengage in high quality public deliberation in today’s pervasively non-

deliberative political atmosphere. Michael Walzer argues that currentlythere is minimal deliberation in political education, organization,mobilization, demonstration, statement, debate, bargaining, lobbying,campaigning, and voting. In addition, ordinary people typically do not havethe time, motivation or requisite skills necessary to deliberate complexissues. 

Muslims have the Constitutional right to practice religion and construct aplace of worship “on private property in lower Manhattan in accordancewith local laws and ordinances. (Obama)” The First Amendment of theConstitution protects the free exercise of religion, and Thomas Jefferson

contends “all men should be free to profess, and by argument to maintain,their opinions in matters of religion.” I agree with Jefferson that theconstitutional right to freedom of religion is the most sacred and inalienableof all human rights. According to Mayor Bloomberg, “Muslims have aconstitutional right to build a mosque in Lower Manhattan (and) tolerancewill always defeat tyranny and terrorism.”