Editorial: Obama should lead on American values

Editorial: Obama should lead on American values
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: August 19 2010 20:03 | Last updated: August 19 2010 20:03
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/00e84d6a-abc3-11df-9f02-00144feabdc0.html


The row over the building of an Islamic centre and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan drags on, and threatens to do real damage to President Barack Obama’s standing, and to the Democrats’ already poor prospects in November’s mid-term elections. Following a script too familiar in contemporary US politics, attitudes are hardening. Many mosque proponents accuse the other side of bigotry; many opponents accuse the president of betraying the victims of 9/11. Almost everybody accuses the president of moral cowardice.

Mr Obama’s first position on the mosque – that it had satisfied the local planning rules, and that the Constitution protects religious freedom – was correct. He might have left it at that but made the grave political error of seeming to walk back: he was not commenting on the wisdom of building the centre, he said. Not for the first time, the president muddled the roles of professor of constitutional law and moral guide to the nation. Sometimes he combines these successfully; not in this case. The position he adopted is especially damaging because it appears to confirm a line of criticism offered by many of his political foes: that he seeks to be all things to all men.

His qualified stance is not self-contradictory; it is defensible. But it has left almost nobody satisfied. With a few honourable exceptions, Republicans are striving irresponsibly to gain maximum advantage from the fuss. The president’s own party appears to be fracturing on the issue. Harry Reid, Democratic leader of the Senate, faces a hard re-election fight in Nevada, and has said the centre should be put somewhere else. Many other Democrats are squirming. David Paterson, New York governor, says he wants to meet the centre’s developers to discuss alternative sites.

Now that Mr Obama has entered the debate he needs to say more than he has. This is a moment, and a subject, on which the leadership he is capable of providing is badly needed. He should make the case for the centre to go ahead – not on grounds of legal propriety, but because that course is indeed the wisest one.

This would not be to belittle the feelings of the two-thirds of Americans who oppose the project, or to accuse them of bigotry. The president must acknowledge the unique sensitivity of the site, but nonetheless argue that America’s religious tolerance cannot be merely rhetorical. He needs to make that case both to his domestic audience and to the world. The country’s founding principles and compelling interests alike favour the project.