{"id":653,"date":"2010-08-14T12:24:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T12:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/obama-supports-new-york-islamic-cultural-center-and-mosque.html"},"modified":"2010-08-14T12:24:29","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T12:24:29","slug":"obama-supports-new-york-islamic-cultural-center-and-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/obama-supports-new-york-islamic-cultural-center-and-mosque.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama Supports New York Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have been very critical of President Obama as regular readers of this blog know. &nbsp;I am therefore happy to give him credit where it is due, and<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/08\/13\/obama-defends-ground-zero-mosque_n_682064.html\"> his support<\/a> of the so-called &#8220;Ground Zero Mosque&#8221; is a heartening example of leadership and courage where there is no a obvious political payoff. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I am glad he has taken this stand and hope he finds courage and leadership habit forming. &nbsp;I think all Pagans should applaud him, for his commitment to freedom of religion and the constitution helps strengthen our own security. &nbsp;But I hope we all applaud him for another reason as well: that freedom of religion is intrinsically a good thing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For those interested, here is more background information on what this new Muslim project <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2010\/08\/14\/peter-king-gz-mosques\/\">will actually do<\/a>. &nbsp;In my opinion interfaith work is one of the most important long term projects for Pagans in this society, and Pagan friends far more deeply involved than I have told me Muslims in interfaith work are (on balance) &nbsp;far easier to work with and more open to our views than are Christians equally involved. &nbsp;This is true at least for Pagans who like me are panentheists or monists in some sense. &nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been very critical of President Obama as regular readers of this blog know. &nbsp;I am therefore happy to give him credit where it is due, and his support of the so-called &#8220;Ground Zero Mosque&#8221; is a heartening example of leadership and courage where there is no a obvious political payoff. &nbsp; I am&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Obama Supports New York Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/obama-supports-new-york-islamic-cultural-center-and-mosque.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama Supports New York Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have been very critical of President Obama as regular readers of this blog know. &nbsp;I am therefore happy to give him credit where it is due, and his support of the so-called &#8220;Ground Zero Mosque&#8221; is a heartening example of leadership and courage where there is no a obvious political payoff. &nbsp; I am&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/obama-supports-new-york-islamic-cultural-center-and-mosque.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-14T12:24:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obama Supports New York Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/08\/obama-supports-new-york-islamic-cultural-center-and-mosque.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obama Supports New York Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"I have been very critical of President Obama as regular readers of this blog know. &nbsp;I am therefore happy to give him credit where it is due, and his support of the so-called &#8220;Ground Zero Mosque&#8221; 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