Cynics Should Love Cordoba House

Elizabeth Wurtzel says cynics should embrace the Ground Zero Mosque as a bargaining chip: evidence of America’s tolerance to be held up as proof positive of our goodwill. “If the destroyers of civilization—which is what many believe Muslims to be—come to you with irenic intent, insisting that they want to pay homage and honor to a disaster caused by the evildoers of their own kind, it strikes me as a good idea to just work with them. Not because you like them or agree with, but because they are here and that’s that, and it seems that when they are trying to be decent, the wisest move is to respond in kind. That way, if something goes wrong later on—if members of the American Muslim community turn out to be bad actors—we have our warm reception of Cordoba House to hold up as evidence of our goodwill. It’s a bargaining chip.”