A ‘Mosque’ Should be Built at Ground Zero by Brita Rose

[BrklynLiberal]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/10-2

<snip>
Firstly, the debate itself is riddled with inaccuracies. The proposed building - now called ‘Park 51 Project' - is to be not only a mosque, but a Cultural Center backed by the Cordoba Initiative1 and will contain a prayer room among its many facilities. Thereby even use of the term mosque for such a space is up for debate. Secondly, the building will not be at Ground Zero, but two blocks away and dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers. Thirdly, there over 100 mosques in New York City - one of which already exists four blocks from Ground Zero. Following the detractors' reasoning these mosques should be eliminated.

But each of these facts misses the point. Were they not the case, we should still be asking what is the true objection here - given that the religious/cultural center in question is being built by legal permit cleared by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission in a country founded upon religious freedom? What is wrong with building the center at Ground Zero? In fact, a facility that promotes moderate Islam, fosters religious tolerance, and encourages greater understanding is precisely what is needed at the re-emerging site. This Islamic cultural center offers the perfect antidote to radicalism and the opportunity for co-existence and cooperation. Our sense of humanity, justice and freedom ought to demand it. As writer Pierre Tristam expresses, "it should be an integral part of the rebirth of ground zero because that's what America stands, or ought to stand, for."

We do not have to look back very far to be reminded that we can co-exist, as did Jews, Christians and Muslims in the city of Cordoba (the very place after which The Cordoba Initiative was named), a flourishing culture of 10th century Spain that was the envy of the medieval world. The promoters of Park 51 are the kind of Muslim moderates that Americans, particularly conservative critics, should be welcoming with open arms. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a Sufi, the mystical and pacifist branch of Islam, and his statement following 9/11 was in no way an endorsement of violence, but rather a geo-political explanation. His wife, Daisy Khan, won an Interfaith Center Award for Promoting Peace and Interfaith Understanding. According to its stated mission, the Cordoba Initiative they founded has the stated mission of striving for "mutual recognition and respect." In the Imam's statement the new complex is to be "a landmark in New York City's cultural, social and educational life, a community center to promote the American values we all aspire towards and to realize a better city for all." In Daisy Khan's words its aim is "to reverse the trend of extremism and the kind of ideology that the extremists are spreading."
<snip>
From a historical perspective, Islam in New York began near Ground Zero, where one of the first Arab-American communities settled. Christians and Muslims from Ottoman Syria migrated in the 1880s as some of the earliest Arabic immigrants to America. As writer Edward Curtis also points out, shrouds at the African Burial Ground (discovered in 1991) six blocks away from the proposed community center suggest that Muslims were also among those enslaved people who helped build Manhattan. Over half a million Muslims now reside in New York City, and the anti-Muslim rhetoric flooding the media over this issue is a slap in the face to the many Muslim immigrants, past and present, who, like other immigrant communities living and working in the city, came here for freedom and opportunity. The best testimony for the area would be churches, synagogues and mosques co-existing in peace.

Any Christian, rightly so, would denounce the brutality of the medieval Crusaders and point out that they have nothing to do with Christianity, despite what the Crusaders themselves believed. And rightly so, most Muslims today do not blame the entire Christian community for the actions of but a segment. The Crusaders' atrocities provoked the Sultan Saladin to defeat Jerusalem in the 12th century, but instead of retaliation, what they received instead was amnesty, protection, and access to Christian holy sites. Many who pride themselves as being part of a ‘Christian nation' yet advocate the bigoted fear-mongering that we are currently hearing from the likes of Pat Robinson, seem unaware of the following irony. As Saladin would no doubt recognize, such thinking has nothing to do with the true teachings of Christ, who taught us to love our enemies, welcome the stranger, and have mercy on those who are marginalized.

Saladin's legendary magnanimity confounded those who were convinced that Muslims were entirely barbaric, and they were forced to re-think their perceptions. He was able to overcome the emotional impulse to scapegoat and implicate the entire group for the actions of but a few. He was able to discern truth from error, and our reaction to this issue and our treatment of our neighbors as a whole, will determine whether or not, we, are able to do the same.

Excellent article..worth reading in its entirety

[babylonsister]

1. Rec'd, and I recommend that you read Bloomberg's comments

as well. The center would help to heal if people would just understand that.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. I applauded Bloomberg's speech about this center. It is one of the few times when I agreed with

him..even enthusiastically agreed.

http://www.cordobainitiative.org/
Mayor Bloomberg’s Statement of Support for the Cordoba House

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the following on a recent radio address:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg“If somebody wants to build a religious house of worship, they should do it and we shouldn’t be in the business of picking which religions can and which religions can’t. I think it’s fair to say if somebody was going to try to on that piece of property build a church or a synagogue, nobody would be yelling and screaming. And the fact of the matter is that Muslims have a right to do it too. What is great about America and particularly New York is we welcome everybody and I just- you know, if we are so afraid of something like this, what does it say about us? Democracy is stronger than this. You know, the ability to practice your religion is the- was one of the real reasons America was founded. And for us to say no is just, I think, not appropriate is a nice way to phrase it.”

While we reiterate our point that the Cordoba House is not intended to be a house of worship, exclusive to Muslims, we echo his statement, and value his support.

[aquart]

3. Yet instead it irritates and divides.

What a holy mission of peace. Which could not possibly have been the intention. "Cordoba" is such a two-edged sword of meaning. A western city subdued by a Muslim army. And a mosque which, in the middle ages, held a million books. While Europe lived in benighted and determined ignorance, Cordoba flourished as a light of knowledge in occupied Spain.

Well, I'm sure it's wonderful. Building a Muslim community center where there is no Muslim community to support it and use its services. I'm sure the Christians and Jews will flock to it.

Practically speaking, this building will eat money on a lesser scale than our invasion of Afghanistan but still, endlessly. Do you plan to donate to it? It will never be self-supporting. Unless the fees for those cooking lessons are really high. And even though I'm sure it will be tax-exempt.

Lordy, that's it! Mosque or not a mosque? Are they taking the exemption? You KNOW they are. MOSQUE!

Well, I'm glad that's settled. Now tell me who on earth is going to be playing basketball there? And don't say "the community" because that means you don't know the area at all.

$100 million for a building that is useless to the area. But an interfaith cultural center that accepts everybody! Uh, we have a real one. We have St. Paul's which survived the attack and housed and fed the rescuers. We have St. Paul's.

[davidinalameda]

5. but St. Pauls is probably

*GASP* Christian

[BrklynLiberal]

9. ignorance is bliss...

and total ignorance must be absolutely intoxicating.

I have worked in lower Manhattan for decades..and there are people working and living there of ALL faiths..who interact both during work and after work. To assume that the Cordoba Center would only be inviting to Muslims just shows the narrowmindedness of the poster.

[davidinalameda]

4. really?

don't you understand that people see this as an insult

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Only hate-mongering, self-serving, ignorant bigots..or those that are manipulated by them, are

insulted by this.

They would look for n=any reason to instigate hatred and anger in the mobs, primarily to serve their own self-aggrandizing agendas.

I live in NYC, I worked in and around the WTC for decades, I lost friends on 9/11...I am not the least bit insulted by the idea of the Cordoba Center. I am more insulted by these holier-than-thou people..who in most cases do not live in NYC and never did...who come in and try to stir the shit and create problems where there should not be any.

[pinboy3niner]

10. And those making false assumptions, as the author explains

You're right--her article is excellent.

Thanks for posting it. :thumbsup:

[emilyg]

16. Well that's you. Consider the

people that are insulted.

[pinboy3niner]

18. You mean the people that "feel" insulted

We are not unsympathetic to you and others who experienced painful personal loss in the 9/11 attacks. Certainly not all who have a negative reaction to the mosque are bigots.

But those who feel insulted by the mosque (who would not feel insulted if it were a church or a synagogue) can only feel that way if they are making unfair and unjustified assumptions that associate "mosque" with terrorists, and all Muslims with the extremist views of a minority of that faith.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. Yr concern for the feelings of Islamophobes is touching...

But why wouldn't the 'people see this as an insult' be seen as a suitable reason to be opposed to anything bigots of any stripe are up in arms about? Do you believe that women shouldn't have equality because it offends misogynists? Or does the argument only work when it comes to Muslims?

[Jefferson23]

6. K&R

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Maybe more people would be interested in this...

[Igel]

11. If you can't understand, try analogy.

Let's consider where Xians or Jews did something horrible to Muslims. Let's not even require that it have been done in the name of Xianity or Judaism. Let's just let it be assumed by the locals that this was the reason.

Perhaps we can take Fallujah as an example, or where a large wedding party was bombed in Afghanistan. Or where some group of people were killed by Israelis in Gaza.

Now, let's put up a moderate Xian cultural center in Fallujah or near where the Afghan wedding party was bombed. Or a Jewish cultural center in Gaza. We'll make sure they have facilities for local secular customs and offer cooking classes. Of course, they'd have prayer rooms--we wouldn't call them churches or synagogues, even though they seat 2000 and are open Sabbath or Sunday services.

If any Muslim objects to them, it can only be because s/he's bigoted and hateful. After all, not all Xians or Jews agreed with killing civilians or all but razing Fallujah's core. It's a good thing to bring these feelings to the forefront so they can be challenged. By opening the cultural centers in Fallujah, Afghanistan, or Gaza we'd obviously be doing something that healing, helping to smooth over ruffled feathers and showing that we really can all get along. I'm sure we'd all be behind these centers and the feelings of good will and trust that would immediately spring out of them.

Now, personally I think that makes as much sense as building a German cultural center with a monument to German military victories, 1939-1942, next to Auschwitz. We understood that it was insensitive when they were going to build a church there.

This kind of reasoning is held up as objectively right--but only sometimes. The other times it's objectively right that the opposite reasoning applies. But, of course, we're completely consistent. It's just that it's impossible to state how we're consistent and maintain the rhetoric of tolerance and inclusion.

[Bugenhagen]

12. Wow! What!!?!

I can't follow any of your logic.

[Violet_Crumble]

14. The problem with yr 'analogy' is that it's RW bigots, not NYC locals who are objecting...

Now, let's put up a moderate Xian cultural center in Fallujah or near where the Afghan wedding party was bombed. Or a Jewish cultural center in Gaza.

Why would Americans be putting up anything in places that have been occupied by the US and Israel? And who's been occupying New York? See, that and the attempt to bring up the Holocaust in that second last paragraph is why yr argument falls totally apart.

Do you think there's any legitimate reasons to be opposed to the cultural centre being built? If so, what are they?

Also, do you acknowledge that this whole thing is attracting Islamophobes like a moth to a flame?

[pinboy3niner]

17. Don't forget this: "monument to German military victories" near a death camp

That's supposed to be analogous to a cultural center whose plans contemplate including a memorial to 9/11 victims??? That's what's offered as an HONEST discussion of the issue?

Color me baffled--and disgusted!

[bergie321]

13. Over 50 Muslims were victims of the attacks

Including several first responders. Should their families not have a place to mourn when they visit the place where their loved ones were killed?

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. kick, but too late to recommend