{"id":188672,"date":"2010-08-15T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T22:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/08\/15\/i-take-a-few-days-off-and-this-happens\/"},"modified":"2010-08-15T17:03:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-15T22:03:00","slug":"i-take-a-few-days-off-and-this-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/08\/15\/i-take-a-few-days-off-and-this-happens\/","title":{"rendered":"I Take a Few Days Off, and This Happens\u2026\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

He goes and supports the right of an Islamic center to be built a few blocks away from the former World Trade Center<\/a> (aka Ground Zero):<\/p>\n

President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that \u201cas a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

After weeks of avoiding the high-profile battle over the center \u2014 his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said last week that the president did not want to \u201cget involved in local decision-making\u201d \u2014 Mr. Obama stepped squarely into the thorny debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,\u201d the president said in remarks prepared for the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day\u2019s fast.<\/p>\n

But, he continued: \u201cThis is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am stunned. I did not figure that he has the guts to do this.<\/p>\n

I am pleasantly surprised, but I expect to see him walking this back in some manner or another over the next few days, because, after all, that’s how he rolls.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, I am wrong about this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He goes and supports the right of an Islamic center to be built a few blocks away from the former World Trade Center (aka Ground Zero): President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[971,1021,1076],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-rights","category-religion","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}