we caught this op-ed piece in the village voice by  american historian and novelist (amongst other thing) nat hentoff and thought it was worth sharing.  it is quite an interesting perspective on the whole downtown mosque debacle from a seasoned veteran of american history and columnist.  is the allotment of the freedom of speech as fickle today as justice?

Why I Oppose the Downtown Mosque

How I questioned an imam’s motives and broke Tom Robbins’s heart

by nat hentoff

In the old days, reporters, in the pages of the Voice, went after one another. Readers enjoyed taking sides in these civil wars, and we ourselves sometimes discovered what we should have known before we so confidently wrote. I’m glad to see the return of this tradition—even though I’m the target.

5411255.28 why i oppose the downtown mosque by nat hentoff

My old friend, colleague, and former shop steward, Tom Robbins—in an August 30 blog item, “Nat Hentoff’s Best and Worst, All in One Month“—charged me with having become the Benedict Arnold of the First Amendment, having betrayed my previous “unrelenting defense of tolerance and freedom of speech.”

His traumatic discovery of my disgrace, he sighed, “kind of breaks your heart, or, as Abbey Lincoln once said, ‘I’ll Drown in My Own Tears.’ ” I was at my best on that fateful month, Tom said in his threnody, because when I ran Candid Records, I recorded Abbey in Max Roach‘s “Freedom Now Suite.”

If you have ever heard and seen Abbey, how could I have not recorded her? Abbey recently left us, but her penetrating integrity remains—not only on her many recordings but also in the jazz musicians she impelled to keep discovering more of their true voices, as she continually did.

But how did I break Tom’s heart? He cited one of my syndicated United Media columns that also appeared in the Jewish World Review, Cato Institute, Realpolitics, and a range of daily newspapers. According to tearful Tom, “Here’sHentoff, who has now found a little corner of the world where his prized Bill of Rights does not apply, a No-Muslim Zone in Lower Manhattan. He fails to tell us how many blocks it should extend.”

click here to read more

This looks interesting no?

PinExt why i oppose the downtown mosque by nat hentoff