• In Murfreesboro, TN in June, hundreds gathered to protest the building of a mosque there. Tea Party candidate Lou Ann Zelenik (R) said in a campaign statement: "This ‘Islamic Center’ is not part of a religious movement; it is a political movement designed to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee.”
• In Florence, KY a mosque planned since 2002 has also generated anger.. The website calling itself "The Vigilante: standing firm in a storm of socialistic sedition" joined in. It warned of a "Marxist-Socialistic agenda" and added ominously: "In every instance where Islam has conquered and 'destroyed utterly' a nation or civilization, the key to the conquest was the establishment of mosques, which are political and military command and control centers for Islam..."
• In Temecula, CA, KABC-TV covered a recent protest against still another planned mosque: "about two dozen protesters waved American flags and shouted through bullhorns, denouncing a plan to build a new mosque." Protesters believe the goal of Islam is to establish a Muslim theocracy in the U.S. (In this particular case, the protesters were outnumbered 10 to 1).
• In Gainesville FL, Dove World Outreach Church still plans a Koran-burning day, despite a ban by the city government. The charismatic fundamentalist church preaches that "Islam is of the Devil." Their sons and daughters were sent to school wearing tee-shirts proclaiming those exact words.

Religious paranoia and bigotry is not all that fuels the protest movement across our country. Some is assuredly a calculated political wedge strategy to emotionalize and energize the religious right in an effort to win seats in November. I found it unsurprising, for example, that The Vigilante has a prominent link to The Heritage Foundation, a right wing think tank.

Whatever the case, promoting the idea that terrorism is a religious war declared by Islam is at least a strategic mistake and potentially a disaster. Promoting a Crusade mentality may indeed be politically useful in stirring the fear and anger pot, using FOX News, Tea Party and Freedom Works rallies--and NewsMax and WorldNetDaily postings for true believers. But it is no remedy for terrorism,. In fact, the predictable result is to further alienate the world's estimated 1.3 billion Muslims and help terrorist recruiting.

To begin to understand the mentality and motives of "radical Islamists" I suggest beginning with Michael Scheuer's book, Imperial Hubris: why the West is losing the war on terror. Scheuer is no "bleeding heart liberal" but a former CIA analyst whose task for years was to study the Bin Laden mentality. One needn't agree with every word to come away wiser.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict also inflames passions in this affair. There again, it is unwise to see it as a black and white issue. Here are two sources I found enlightening: The first, Gershom Gorenberg's "The End of Days: fundamentalism and the struggle for the Temple Mount," Oxford University Press, c2000. The second, a 2008 video by Anna Baltzer,
"Life in Occupied Palestine."

I watched it first at our local church. Both Baltzer and Gorenburg are Jewish: Gorenberg is a historian and journalist who lives in Jerusalem. Baltzer, a former Columbia graduate and Fulbright scholar, lives in the U.S.

The basic issue is straightforward. To quote Thomas Paine:

"As in absolute governments the king [or the Priest or the Imam] is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."

President Obama correctly says (and even those whose emotions are red hot have little choice but to agree,) building the community center building two blocks from ground zero is the legal right of those who own the property and have passed regulatory hurdles.

Organized religiosity often co-stars in political drama -- the more violent, the bigger and more impassioned the role. Whatever the faction, claiming supernatural justification can become an aphrodisiac for killing, a pious mask for the worst in our species. As Jonathan Swift observed three centuries ago,

"We [humans] have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another."

The wall of separation between church and state is a critical part of our American heritage. We should demonstrate our commitment to it here. It's who we are... or at least who we should be.