Vol. 74/No. 36      September 27, 2010

A spate of anti-Muslim incidents and rhetoric have accompanied this controversy. Communists condemn all such acts of religious bigotry, which sow divisions in the working class and narrow space for working people to engage in politics.

Working people should oppose any government interference with the center in lower Manhattan, known as Park51. This includes denouncing statements by capitalist politicians and other ruling-class figures designed to pressure its builders to relocate the site, as well as calls on the government to help “mediate” an agreement that might be acceptable to both sides.

As the September 6 Militant editorial stated, such intervention sets “a dangerous precedent for government circumvention of fundamental rights that serve to protect working people from the capitalists’ state power.” These protections include the Bill of Rights and other amendments to the Constitution that codify protections such as freedom of speech, worship, and assembly, which working people wrested—and have had to defend—through decades of struggle against the propertied rulers.

Communists champion freedom to worship for all faiths—with neither impediments nor support from the government.

Our stance against government interference also includes opposition to any moves by the capitalist state to curtail the rights of reactionary enemies of the working class. For example, in the United Kingdom some of the forces organizing countermobilizations against the rightist English Defence League called on the government to ban EDL demonstrations. In this case, the government did respond, banning all protest marches in the city by either side for a day.

Workers should reject any such “help” from our class enemy’s state power, which will later be turned against the working class. Rather, we look to the only forces and methods capable of defeating rightist forces: the mobilization of workers and their allies to confront them politically and in the streets—and meet them blow for blow when necessary.

A few readers asked about the paragraph in the editorial: “Despite claims of the center’s sponsors that they are building near the World Trade Center to promote interfaith reconciliation, the resulting controversy was inevitable and easily foreseen. While some Democratic and Republican politicians refuse to acknowledge this fact, others seize upon it to whip up patriotic appeals for state intervention.”

We agree this part of the editorial is confusing and open to misinterpretation.

We do not blame Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf nor speculate on his motivations, which are irrelevant. Neither does the editorial intend to make a point about what capitalist politicians should be saying. The various points of view professed by mouthpieces for the ruling class flow from their class interests, not those of working people.

At the same time, a backlash against Park51 plans to build two blocks from “ground zero” was inevitable. Not everyone who thinks it’s not a good idea is an anti-Muslim bigot. While this has no bearing on our position, it can only strengthen our argument to acknowledge it.

One reader questioned the implications of the Militant pointing out that Adbul Rauf is paid by the U.S. State Department to “build bridges” between religious and political institutions of the U.S. ruling class and its counterparts in the Gulf. While it also does not affect our position, it is worth noting because these efforts have nothing to do with breaking down religious and other divisions in the working class. Proletarian habits of mutual trust, tolerance, and class solidarity develop among working people in the course of common struggle against the bosses and their governments.
 
 
Related articles:
March counters protest against Islamic center in Manhattan
Socialists join action against banning mosque
Oppose rulers’ assaults at home and abroad
Letters  
 
 
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