Nat Hentoff's big mistake...

[jaimehlers]

Nat Hentoff is a conservative political columnist who regularly writes about First Amendment issues.  I normally find what he has to say very interesting and thought-provoking.  The same is true of his three latest columns, linked below:

• Am I also a bigot?  Pols clueless on Ground Zero mosque (8/25/10)
• What hath the Ground Zero imam wrought? (9/1/10)
• Unifying Muslim community after Ground Zero mosque uproar (9/8/10)

However, some of the thoughts being provoked by this series of columns are less than complimentary.  I refer to him repeatedly referring to the community center being built near the Ground Zero site as a mosque.  It is not.  It is a community center, modeled along the same general lines as the YMCA/YWCA and the JCC (Jewish Community Center), including the fact that it will have a prayer room.  For Hentoff to consistently refer to it as a mosque means either that he has bought into the right-wing hype about the facility, or that he does not care if he is referring to it accurately.  Neither is a good thing.

What's really a shame is that the articles are worthwhile reads in their own right, if you can get around the sour taste of having someone as respectable as Hentoff buying into the blatantly false "controversy" that was drummed up by such "conservatives" as Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.  But how many people will be able to get past that without setting the articles down in disgust?  Conversely, how many people will only care about the fact that he is referring to it that way, and thus giving the fake controversy a veneer of respectability?

Unfortunately, I was not able to find any way to contact him regarding this mistaken reference, which is disappointing.  So I'm writing about it here; even though most people won't see it, at least I will be able to get the words out.