Mike Arcuri Opposes Religious Freedom
A mind-boggling campaign maneuver has been taken by Blue Dog Democrat Michael Arcuri, who represents a congressional district in Upstate New York, closer to Canada than it is to Manhattan. Arcuri has announced that he wants to create certain zones in New York State where certain religions cannot be practiced.
Congressman Arcuri cited “victims’ rights” in a statement declaring that a Muslim community center and mosque should not be built in Manhattan – “for the sake of the victims and their families”.
Victims’ rights? Where in the Constitution does it say that the relatives of crime victims get to have veto power over other people’s religious practices? Victims don’t have that right in the United States. Mike Arcuri is a lawyer. He ought to know that.
Representative Arcuri also ought to know that there were American Muslims in the World Trade Center when it was attacked on September 11, 2001. Muslims were among the victims of September 11, 2001. How is Arcuri protecting the rights of their families, by pushing to ban their free practice of religion?
What makes Arcuri’s decision to use his power as a member of Congress to try to prevent the free practice of religion in Manhattan is that his Republican opponent, Richard Hanna, had already declared opposition to efforts to ban the free practice of Islam in Manhattan. Hanna wrote, “This country was founded by people who were running away from religious persecution… So how can we become what we have beheld and found contemptible other places?” Arcuri didn’t need to support the effort to ban the new Muslim building in Manhattan. Hanna had removed it as a campaign issue – before Arcuri re-introduced it.
Residents of New York’s 24th congressional district are now faced with the bizarre prospect of a Democratic candidate arguing in favor of Sarah Palin’s extremist right wing position against freedom of religion, against a GOP rival who opposes Palin’s anti-mosque crusade.
[...] Arcuri has announced that he supports Sarah Palin’s crusade to block the construction of a Muslim communi… in lower Manhattan. Why would Arcuri do such a thing? Manhattan isn’t in our congressional [...]
We should give religious freedom to worship as you wish, but it also must not infringe on the rights of other Americans. That would include forcing those who live and suffered near ground zero, to have to see or hear the religion being practiced.
What you’re proposing, Lucy, is that anyone who feels upset about another religion being practiced near them should be given the power to forbid the religious practice.
What makes you think that you have the right to tell other Americans what kind of religious practice they can engage in? Do I have the right to tell you where and when to go to church?
Read the Constitution of the United States of America, Lucy. You don’t have these “rights” you think you have. There is no constitutional right to censor people who make you upset.
If you actually read the article, instead of merely scanning and then commenting what was already on your mind, you’d see that there were Muslims working in the World Trade Center killed on September 11, 2001. Do you think the families of those Muslims have the right block Christian church construction?
[...] wing Blue Dog Congressman Mike Arcuri is being challenged for the second time by Richard Hanna, a Republican who has run to the left of Arcuri on some issues, including, at least initially, [...]