2. Leadership requires more than merely catering to public sentiment.
Yes.
Leadership requires that the leader say what he means the first time he says it, and then stick with it.
Saying what he meant the first time he said it, then playing "take it back" the next day, means the Messiah is NOT a leader, and it means he expects us to be stupid enough to not know truth is spoken first.
3. IMO, if it comes down to a choice between current public sentiment, where emotions may well be running high, and bedrock principles on which the U.S. was established e.g., religious tolerance, I believe leaders should embrace those bedrock principles.
No one is saying the terrorists can't build a temple.
Everyone who's not a politician is saying they shouldn't be building their monument to the 9-11 terrorists THERE.
No fundamental principles are being violated. Zoning law has been a fundamental principle of all cities since Hamurabi.
Now, when we take into account that the terrorists seeking to build this monument originally planned to call the thing "Cordoba House", in commemoration of the successful muslim invasion of Spain in the `0th Century. That name was too blatantly agressive for the marketing campaign to get their new temple to terrorism built, and it was changed to some eponymous code to appease certain politicians.
There is no credible evidence today that religious tolerance is a flawed principle
It's not.
So the terrorists should be required to show tolerance to the sensitivities of the people they're trying to insult with their Temple to Terrorism.
They can build their temple elsewhere, there's nothing significant to Islam at that site that requires that specific place to be used.
Except 3000 dead Americans killed in the name of Allah.
4. Although those whose families suffered harm/losses during 9/11 might be reluctant to see a Mosque constructed near Ground Zero, the precedent of treating all Muslims as collectively responsible for that terrorist attack by denying Muslims a chance to build a Mosque is a worrying one.
Actually, we're talking about terrorists promoting this temple who are unable to describe Hamas as the terrorists organization it is, and who attribute some portion of the blame for the atrocities on 9-11 on the victims.
Should a half-way house for convicted rapists getting parole be sited across the street from a rape crisis center?
Should child molesters be housed across the street from a school?
Almost all cities, New York included, have laws limiting the placement of "adult" entertainment shops, porno theaters, and strip clubs. Why? Out of respect for public sensitivity to the proximity of contradictory issues.
No constitutional right would be violated if the zoning board said "no" to a Temple to Terrorism at the site of a building damaged by the jet engine from one of the weapons stolen by Islamic terrorists to murder 3000 Americans. I'm sure there's a former landfill down wind of a sewage treatment plant just begging for a mosque somewhere.