GHULAM ASGHAR KHAN With the public discourse so predominantly dominated by hysterical sound bites of religious intolerance and xenophobia, the US faade of a secular state stands exposed as pretentious and ugly. Chauvinism has become the hallmark of the Republicans, who have not been able to reconcile with the election of Obama, as the first Black American to become the President of the United States of America. With the US mid-term elections less than three months away, the issue that has become the focal point of this campaign is a telling indicator of the intensely reactionary character of official politics in the US between the GOP and the Democrats; the issue of the construction of a Muslim mosque and an Islamic cultural centre two and a half blocks away from the place, where the World Trade Centre was located. Employing unbridled hypocrisy and cynicism, rightwing forces centred in the Republican Party, aided and abetted by some diehard Democrats, have whipped up mob hysteria against a proposal that has been approved by local authorities for construction in lower Manhattan. The centre - the Cordoba House - in Manhattan is to include a swimming pool, gym, an arts centre and a memorial to the victims of 9/11 terrorist attacks. While its supporters have stressed its interfaith character, it has almost been universally dubbed as the Ground Zero Mosque. The semi-fascists, rightist elements have denounced this as desecration of the sacred ground where about 3,000 (over 300 of them were Muslims) were killed on 9/11. The truth is that, nearly nine years after the attacks, the former World Trade Centre largely remains a hole in the ground, a sprawling construction site in which a little has been built. No memorial has been raised to pay homage to the fallen, because real estate developers and government officials have haggled for years over special financial terms. The far-reaching implications of this campaign entail an assault on the First Amendment of the US Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech and religion and barring the government from establishing a state religion or lending preference to one religion over another. For months, the White House refused to comment on the ensuing controversy, insisting in the face of an assault on core constitutional principles and a nationwide hate campaign that the dispute was little more than a local zoning matter. But last Friday, while delivering a speech to an Iftar party, at the White House, Obama affirmed that the Muslims had the same right to practise their religion as everyone else in the country. This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable, said Obama. And that included the right to build a place for worship and a community centre in lower Manhattan. Demonising of the Muslims is what this brouhaha is all about. While talking about the sensitivity of the 9/11 victims, ignoring those who were Muslims, is just a faade. It is high time for the Muslim countries around the world to consider the full implications of the call for international cold war against Islam by the former GOP The Ground Zero mosque controversy has trapped the Obama administration in an unavoidable contradiction. On the one hand, US imperialism needs to recruit Muslim allies and puppets to further its two ongoing wars and a possible Israeli manoeuvred aggression against Iran. On the other hand, it has whipped up anti-Muslim sentiment within the general public and among US troops in order to generate religious-based support for these catastrophic wars against the Muslim countries. The writer is a freelance columnist.