You are denying the right of the Imam to respond to public opinion, saying that he must do whatever he wanted, without regard to public opinion. Ya know, he has a right to accede to public opinion, and for that reason, the public should exercise its right to express that opinion.
Your opinion is contradictory of itself.
I am not saying anyone MUST do anything. And I am denying no one anything. The people who are doing the denying are the one's who think that their opinion should have some measure of control over what is a right.
You Sir, have an uncanny ability to look for something in a post that can be twisted into a meaning that isn't there and build on it hoping to engender a contentious argument.
Some people say no one should carry a gun around children because it is their opinion that guns make for an unsafe atmosphere for kids. Implied in that is the expectation that their opinion has some weight and it should have an outcome (measure of control) whether guns are around kids or not. This is gun control. This is public opinion restricting the 2nd Amendment due to social pressure. Of course folks can ignore social pressure when making up their minds whether or not they are willing to accept the problems involved......... but my point is simple.
No opinion has the power to control a right.
That said some people do allow public opinion to sway their decisions concerning exercising a right... and by doing so allow their right to be controlled by those opinions... and reduce a right into a privilege that should be used only where/when public opinion allows it.
And I am dismayed to see people on a 2nd Amendment supporting forum say things similar to (paraphrased from reading this and other threads on the subject):
-Yes the muslims have the right to build a mosque but just because they have the right it isn't the right thing to do. They should be sensitive to the "feelings" (opinions) of the public.
Now.... does that kind of twisted logic strike a chord with anyone in reference to OC?
For the record.... I have my own strong negative feelings and opinions about building a mosque at that site. But my beliefs in rights far outweighs my feelings and opinions... because..
-The United States of America is a Nation built upon rights within a framework of laws inhabited by people.. each of which has an opinion. When opinions make laws that restrict rights we become a Nation ruled by lawmakers opinions.
Either we support all rights regardless of how we feel about them or our personal opinions of them as we demand the right to keep and bear arms... or we are hypocrites.
Having said all that anyone in the selling/building of the mosque process also have the right to not sell, not build, or as someone has mentioned somewhere.... open a topless bar selling ham sandwiches next door to the mosque.
But to say that they have the right to build but they shouldn't exercise that right because we don't like it is exactly the same thing said by anti gunners about guns.