A pantomime battle for the soul of America

This article was published in Spiked-Online 11 November 2010

Both sides in the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ row are driven by the politics of fear and a disdain for their fellow Americans.

Looking at the debate about the Ground Zero mosque from afar, from over in Britain, it seems to me that neither side has very much to recommend it. Both sides have indulged in the politics of fear and both sides have cynically used this controversy to try to magic up a new political narrative – a narrative in which they themselves feature as political heroes, and in which anyone who opposes them is depicted as stupid, ignorant and possibly even fascistic.

So one side in the debate, those who oppose the mosque, tells us that the greatest threat to mankind is Islamofascism.