So says the leader of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, in today’s New York Times regarding the masjid/Islamic center planned for lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center site:
“Survivors of the Holocaust are entitled to feelings that are irrational,” [Foxman] said. Referring to the loved ones of Sept. 11 victims, he said, “Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted.”
Entitled. Entitled. To “irrational” and “bigoted” opinions. But not only that. They are also entitled to have those “opinions” become policy and law, apparently.
I wonder how far Foxman’s understanding of the entitlement of victims or relatives of victims to “irrational and bigoted” opinions and actions deriving from those opinions go? Are Palestinians who have lost loved ones to Israeli bullets and bombs entitled to “irrational and bigoted” opinions? Are Lebanese? How about all those who have suffered at the hands of the United States, or have lost loved ones to American bullets and bombs? Are they all entitled to “irrational and bigoted” opinions because of their “anguish?” Or the right to act upon those opinions?
No, I didn’t think so either.
(Actually, I suspect Foxman would deny all of the above even the right to feel anguish about their losses.)
1:58 pm on July 31, 2010
