There has been much focus on the negative debate surrounding the Park51 project near ground zero.  And there have been shameful expression of anti-Muslim hatred, including vicious assaults apparently linked to the controversy.  But in the midst of the hateful rhetoric, some, including New York's Mayor Bloomberg are speaking out passionately in defense of religious tolerance, free speech, reason, and the Constitution.

On the Daily Show, Bloomberg told host John Stewart that he studied the Constitution in school.

“It says you have a right to say what you want to say, which means to pray to whomever wherever you want whenever you want.  It’s just not the government's business to tell you what to say."

He's absolutely right. 

Sign this petition and thank Mayor Bloomberg for leading the way, for opposing religious discrimination and for defending the rights of all.