Generally I avoid linking to the rants of TNR Editor in Chief Marty Peretz because I don't know anyone who really cares what he thinks or takes it very seriously. His public statements about Arabs and Muslims embarrass an otherwise excellent publication, but I've never gotten the impression that they're actually influential in terms of how they affect how other people think. Still, there are reasons this is worth noting (via Matt Yglesias):
But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.
This is the most honest statement in opposition to the Park51 project that I've read. American Muslims aren't really Americans, therefore they're not "worthy" of having First Amendment rights extended to them, therefore the community center shouldn't be built. This perfectly illustrates why "burn a Quran day" isn't a subject of outrage while conservatives organize against the construction of an Islamic community center in a pre-existing prayer space as though the latter were an "offense" to those who died on 9/11. White Christians are allowed to "abuse" the First Amendment because unlike American Muslims, they're real Americans and the freedoms outlined in the Constitution actually apply to them. Peretz argues this while stating matter of factly that "actually, no one has shown that a single serious demonstration against Muslims and Arabs, against their beliefs and behavior can be raised in this country." It's called Google.
Incidentally, I find the idea of First Amendment "abuse" really pernicious. The point of the First Amendment is that it guarantees free expression; you can't "abuse" that freedom except by curtailing it. Someone expressing an idea that I find abhorrent is not an "abuse" of the First Amendment, a statement that implicitly suggests some forms of free expression shouldn't come under its protection. "Burn a Quran day" isn't an "abuse" of the First Amendment; it's just a dumb thing to do.
