In case you haven’t read it lately, or are buying in to the various right-wing and tea party arguments about the right of a mosque to be built near the 9/11 Ground Zero, allow me to refresh your memory concerning the First Amendment to the US constitution. It’s my personal favorite, by the way.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

See, all this blathering about can they or can’t they and is Obama a traitor to America for saying that a mosque can be built on what a very vocal minority thinks is Holy Ground, that’s all bullshit and beside the point. It is really, really simple. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It’s in the constitution. Separation of church and state. Right to assemble. Right to worship. No right to abridge the freedom of speech or religion. Done and fucking done, you pin-headed morons. If you want to make America a theocracy, you are the traitor to the basic tenets of the Founders. Simple as that.

No official state religion. Not yours, not mine, not theirs. I think a very wise judge just pointed this out a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco: You cannot legislate morality based on your ideals of religious rightness. This whole mosque debate is moot. Any religion can build a house of worship anywhere they want in this country. Within the local zoning regulations, at any rate.

Even Michael Bloomberg, who has had no problem banning smoking in NYC bars, and who turned the seamy underbelly of Times Square right side out, pressed it, cleaned it and made it into a family-friendly Disney park, knows this much: “We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights — and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.” (referring to the men and women who died in the attacks)

In sum, STFU. Mosque, temple, church, mission house, synagogue, Kingdom Hall, stupa, wat, Gurudwara, atashkada, or shrine, any of these can be built in America. Anywhere. Even in New York City.