New Fight Over Ground Zero Mosque The Anti-Defamation League

New Fight Over Ground Zero Mosque

The Anti-Defamation League recently came out against building a mosque near Ground Zero—but is it betraying its own founding principles? The ADL, which describes itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency" was founded in 1913 and saw itself as a mirror of the Klu Klux Klan, fighting anti-Semitism in order to ensure the equal rights of all citizens. It lobbied for civil rights and against anti-Catholic bigotry. But the creation of Israel posed a problem for the group; the ADL essentially split in two and is now plagued with a double standard, fighting for all citizens in the U.S. but ignoring Israel's own discriminatory behavior toward Palestinians, writes The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart. And now, with its opposition to a Ground Zero mosque, the group is extending its hypocrisy—holding the crimes of a handful of members of a group against all its innocent, peaceful members. "The chickens are coming home to roost" about the Ground Zero controversy, writes Beinart.

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