Zionists on Both Sides of Tenn. Mosque Debate

Matthew Yglesias notes that among the organizations sponsoring a court challenge to the building of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a Christian Zionist group. “The point here is that PJTN’s views on Israel are just part of a larger worldview that casts Muslims and Islam as the enemy,” he writes.

I come not to quibble with Yglesias’s view of Christian Zionists—my view is similar, although I do think columnist Lee Smith’s more nuanced take is worth considering as well. But I want to point out that if “Post-Jewish Zionists” are the ones opposing this mosque, Jewish Zionists are the ones supporting it: The Anti-Defamation League, through its Interfaith Coalition on Mosques (established, conspicuously, after its wrongheaded stance on the lower Manhattan Islamic center), filed an amicus brief urging the court to drop the Murfreesboro suit, which the ADL called “an artificial roadblock to delay the start of this approved project and to deny the mosque’s sponsors their religious freedom.”

Just a friendly reminder, first, that Zionists whose prime motivation is anti-Muslim sentiment are the exception, not the rule; and, second, that the Anti-Defamation League is at its best when it is combating defamation.

Post-Jewish Zionism [Yglesias]
ICOM Acts Against Lawsuit Intended to Stop Tennessee Mosque [ADL]
Related: Friends in Deed [Tablet Magazine]
Earlier: My Hagee Problem—and Ours