I went to the Divine Liturgy this morning at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection in Manhattan’s East Village — and it was everything one would have hoped for: candles, icons, and a cappella singing of great simplicity and loveliness, its effect only enhanced by the fact that most of the singing was in English. (The Orthodox are, slowly but surely, gaining a foothold among Americans whose ancestors do not hail from traditionally Orthodox countries. According to the cathedral’s website, “nearly 35 percent of [the parish’s] members are adult converts to the Orthodox faith.”) But these are dark times; we were reminded, amid the great beauties of the liturgy, of the increasing cruelties of the outside world. It happens to be the feast of the New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke, and one of the priests told the congregation about the petty oppressions the Turkish government inflicts on the tiny Orthodox minority in that country. You can’t fix a broken window in a church without government approval, for example; and the government never gives approval. Not so long ago, I would have thought, What a shame, even Turkey is kowtowing to the Islamist bigots. In the wake of recent weeks, though — the Gaza flotilla and the Iran nuke deal — this behavior has become less and less surprising, and more part of a sad pattern. There’s no “even Turkey” about it: Turkey is going in the direction of the harshest and ugliest Islamist states.

The lack of religious liberty in the Muslim world is of course a continuing outrage, and this can’t help but inform the debate over the proposed mosque at Ground Zero. If you ask me, Do you oppose in principle the building of a mosque at the site of this terrorist atrocity, in which 3,000 innocents were killed?, I would say, no; indeed I can think of circumstances in which it would be praiseworthy: Let’s say, for example, that occasional NRO contributor Zuhdi Jasser and similarly minded friends got together and decided to build a small Muslim house of prayer there as a memorial to those who were killed — as an explicit act of solidarity with the victims (some of whom were Muslims) and with America’s fight against terrorism. But Dr. Jasser himself opposes this proposed mosque, and raises serious questions about the agenda of its proponents.

I leave to the lawyers the question of whether there is an exception to the religious free-exercise clause based on the lack of good faith of the exercise’s proponents, or based on the fact that a religious exercise is intended primarily as an insult, a provocation, or a public nuisance. I have, though, a proposal for what to do about the mosque if it goes forward.

Leaving the gorgeous Orthodox church service, I went home through another of New York’s rich displays of beauty — this one created by the hand of God, and not the art of man. Yes, it was the Puerto Rican Day parade, an exuberant tribute to Puerto Rican culture, but famous especially for its lovely women in skimpy outfits roughly a size and a half too small for their wearers. What say we arrange, every Friday, a mini-Puerto Rican Day parade in front of the mosque? It could be quiet and respectful — we Americans are not, after all, boorish thugs — but nonetheless pointed: displaying the female body as nothing to be ashamed of or to be hidden behind burkas, and the entire female human being as a prized bearer of rights in our society, a person with a voice in the public square. This would turn the mosque into our teaching moment. If it turns out that the mosque is run by decent sorts, the demonstrations could peter out. If evidence mounts that the mosque is just another cover for Saudi Wahhabi terror supporters and other jihadists . . . the demonstrations could get a little louder.

In a hearts-and-minds struggle between jihadists on one hand, and our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters on the other, I’ll put my money on the Puerto Ricans any day.