Ground Zero Tolerance Mosque
On August 3rd, plans for a mosque to be built 600 feet from the site of New York City’s ground zero cleared the last municipal obstacle, causing New Yorkers and Americans in general to completely and utterly lose their minds. The mosque and Islamic center is being accused of, at best, being in poor taste, and at worst, funded and crafted by terrorist organizations. Now, it may be clear to some that this country, being founded on freedom of religion, should exhibit some form of tact and tolerance in this case as well as hearing the millions of American Muslim outcries of ’9/11? Yo, we had nothing to do with all that’. However, I am genuinely surprised at how totally prejudiced America has turned out to be.
Polls show that over 50% of New Yorkers and 60% of Americans oppose the mosque. Despite the fact that it may not be the popular opinion, I am proud to say that New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg went on record saying “I believe that this is as important a test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetime, and it is critically important that we get it right.” If that’s not enough for you, even the President himself has maintained that the mosque has the right to be there, though he diplomatically and with all the grace and scent of self-preservation hasn’t gone on record ‘supporting’ the mosque. Which is fine. It shouldn’t particularly matter how people feel about where Muslims do or do not put Islamic centers, but it matters terribly that (providing municipal law has been followed) they absolutely have the right to do so in America. When Americans begin to restrict religious freedom in the states and force their beliefs on fellow citizens, what distinguishes America from the ‘freedom hating Islamic extremists’ that the are allegedly at war with?
Other politicians on board with the mosque happen to include Hamas. Let me just say- my affection for Hamas aside for a moment- you aren’t helping, dudes! At a time when American Muslims are trying to look as innocuous as possible the absolute last thing needed is a group like Hamas saying things like “We have to build everywhere”, an unintentionally ominous statement from Mahmoud al-Zahar. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the most controversial mosque in the world, has received extra criticism for refusing to call Hamas a terrorist organization. Rauf departed last week on an international trip with stops in places like Dubai, Saudi, Bahrain, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi to improve understanding about Muslim communities in America is, of course, being portrayed as essentially a bake sale-style Terrorist Fund raising Adventure for the mosque.
Some New Yorkers have even asked what’s tackier- a ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ or the dozens of vendor tables selling china-made 9/11 souvenirs? People have been throwing around the phrase ‘Hallowed Ground’, but most Hallowed spaces do not have strip clubs, off-track betting, or Burger Kings.
Here’s the thing, and maybe I’m being naïve here, but I am genuinely surprised at how intolerant America is being right now. I work for the American military as an independent contractor on occasion, when I first started I expected to be hated for being Arab and Muslim, especially because I work on Ft. Hood, the site of the recent on-base shootings by a Muslim soldier. I was surprised by how wrong I was. I have met more tolerance and understanding among U.S. Soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, my theory for this is that because they have actually been to these places they see that the Western portrayal of the Muslim Arab as Enemy isn’t correct, while civilians are exposed only to hyper-generalized, ominous stock footage of women in niqab and bearded AK-toting extremists.
While I may be disappointed I’m not without hope. Minorities in America have all had their turn in the stocks- Irish, Catholics, Jews, Japanese, communists, etc. In fact, let’s take that last one as an example. 60 years ago Japanese-Americans were being rounded up and treated like spies and terrorists in an almost identical fashion to Arab-Americans after 9/11. Now America and Japan have excellent business relations, Japanese restaurants are among the most fashionable of cuisine, and Japanese women are revered as ‘exotic-looking’ and beautiful. So here is my Nostradamus moment for the day: give it 60 years. In 2070 my granddaughters will be top models, there will be 5 star Iraqi restaurants in Manhattan, and people will decorate their homes with Bedouin rugs and pictures of the kabba. Iraqi culture will be cool, hipsters will all be Islamocurious and America will have moved onto a new minority to vilify. But here’s to hoping that Arabs and Muslims are the last.
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An American Dad here: Good points and I’m glad to hear your intentions for the peaceful integration of Muslim life and culture into America’s future.
Our ever evolving culture is fluid but, as you illustrated, American tolerance surely takes time and our commitment to it requires the endorsement of our codes of freedom. Obviously, it can not mean subjugation to the will or demands of any specific group’s cause.
Unfortunately, 9/11 galvanized a notion in the minds of most Americans, from the halls of the White House to the kitchens of our neighborhoods, that Islam, in general, does not believe in our foundation of freedom and, in fact is intent on our downfall.
In effect, the terrorists caught all of Islam in their propaganda of violence and put Americans on the offense against an enemy that cannot be easily defined. Ironically, the terrorists have also given us an opportunity to work together that can accelerate our individual and joint causes for peace and spiritual freedom.
Our most powerful weapon in this war is communication. To beat the terrorist’s campaign over time and find the tolerance that will encourage the inclusion of Muslim life in America’s legacy, most Americans want to hear clearly from the peaceful Muslim world that they are proactive allies in denying the terror organizations the right to hijack their identity or their passion for their cause.
The voices of peaceful Muslim leaders taking a stand would resonate powerfully with America’s will to overcome terror. Fighting for the cause of those committed to peaceful coexistence is in our DNA.
Finding the channel for positive communications is the challenge. As far as I can see, news producers aren’t prioritizing to search for stories of Muslim’s evangelizing peace.
If you know of such Muslim movements or people trying to organize and lead them, please share the information or point me in the direction of news sources that discuss them. I, for one, will be happy to learn more and spread the news.
Even Americans like Sarah Palin have publicly recognized that Muslims have the RIGHT to build a mosque anywhere (subject to all relevant city zoning codes, of course), the question here is whether or not a mosque SHOULD be built there. Which is exactly why many of my American Muslim friends agree that the mosque should be placed elsewhere.
Also, the hallowed ground argument is made mostly because a piece of debris hit this particular building during the attacks – not because of it’s mere proximity to the footprint of the twin towers.
Your article also left out the fact that the this building passed all zoning committees by almost unanimous votes. Some 60% of Americans may not want a mosque there, but the rights as protected by our 1st Amendment clearly have won out, and no one has suggested that the American or New York government step in and declare this mosque “illegal.” What those who oppose the mosque are suggesting is that the builders move the mosque elsewhere (which may be a possibility, as the builders apparently have raised no money to actually complete this project). It is the protection of such rights that separates America from other countries in the world – and therefore your comparison is unfair.
Yeah, like outside of America.
Sahar, do you really believe there are no mosques in America? Please. This is about one specific mosque in a very emotional location. If religious monuments are going to be built in this area, it should be done similarly to the Petagon’s ‘ground zero,’ where the space is not religiously specific and different times are scheduled for all denominations to come pray.
Another thing that bothered me about this article is the comparison to the treatment of Arab Americans after 9/11 to the treatment of Japanese Americans 60-some years ago. Ari, this shows your ignorance of American history – Japanese Americans were rounded up and placed in internment camps for no discernible reason, and no such thing has happened to Arab Americans. The discrimination against Arab Americans in the US now is disgusting and terrible, but it’s no where near the level it was against Japanese Americans in WWII.
With that said, I share the author’s hope that in another 60 years that America and Americans will be passed all forms of intolerance and bigotry.
Also, Ari, an Arab American is already a top model – check out the reigning Miss USA Rima Fakih from Michigan.
As I followed a link to this staggering The End Of Nations page it occurred to me that Mideast Youth’s web visitors totally must be able to pass judgment on this link! http://hubpages.com/hub/Global-Union-The-End-Of-Nations
This is the best video I have seen about Ground Zero Mosque. It is called= there is no ground zero’.
Regards,
Ans
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/917.html
Jessica, watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZpT2Muxoo0
Hopefully this will help communicate to you how silly this whole thing really is and how people are just using it to justify Islamophobia and xenophobia.
“”60 years ago Japanese-Americans were being rounded up and treated like spies and terrorists in an almost identical fashion to Arab-Americans after 9/11.”"
What a bunch of self pitying blather. Your knowledge of history is apalling. So where are the arabs being held in interment camps?? The fact youre so ignorant about US History disqualifies just about all youre pathetic points.
The mosque is a war/victory trophy for Islam. It will be a symbol of their victory over the weak secular west, many of whose members have posted their own pathetic easily refutable arguments here. The mosque will be viewd around the islamic world as a victory symbol. It will be a great tool for terrorist recruiting.
for once im glad im 65
and wont live to see that
Funny, last time I was downtown, none of the vendors or owners of strip clubs were threatening to wipe Jews off the face of the earth. None struck women in the street who were not properly covered up (to the contrary). None called for the stoning of anyone to death. Amazing!
How many Jewish synagogues are there in muslim countries? Catholic Churches?
A ‘religion’ that calls for the elimination of a group of people is NOT a religion. sharia is not religion. It is a political position, not a holy one. We need to stop treating it as such.
Chief and oldmomster…
The problem is that the west in general and the Americans specifically address the Muslims and Arabs from outside. First I am a Muslim but not religious, my best adorable Arab intellectual is a christian of Dr. Azmi Bishara, and also the American Arab intellectual (which I doubt you know of) Professor Eduard Said !!!
You would be surprised if I tell you that the first time I was in the zionist jail I was the only muslim in a room of eight christian prisoners from Bethlehem ( an you know we were not captured for drugs but for fighting for our freedom)…
Chief, I don count on you because you are too old to have any effect on the young generation !! I am counting on the youth Americans who will be tolerant enough to know that over 10% of the Egyptian people are Christians and that Egypt is full of Churches everywhere (just as an example of the Arab societies), over 40% of the Lebanese are Christians and even some of them are Hizbullah allies….. We dont see that Hizbullah is killing christians or even prohibiting building churches !!
We, Arabs, have been enfolding the all the diversity of ethnicities you can imagine until recently the zionists plagued the region. Just Iraq, as an example; there were hundreds of thousands of jews who has thousands of synagogues in Baghdad and Iraq in geheral… What happened, I will leave the Iraqi jewish writer Naeim Giladi to explain to you how he’s weeping over the sweet times living amongst the Arabs and how the zionists killed jews and committed terrorist atrocities to drive them out of Iraq !!
I here , in Palestine, probably have christian friends more than muslims, one of my best friends is Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
I personnally, host in my home (an on the house) jews and christian friends for weekend in our activities to try to create a peaceful atmosphere afer every zionist and American atrocity !!
I bet you wont undersant what i mean and how I live here because you are sunk so deep in your own mind of spreading hatred and islamophobia instead of trying to bridge the gap… some people are very old and frustrated of this life and project their frustration against other ethnicities instead of being active and spread mutual understanding amongst all the different religions, all the different ethnicities… but instead, we find them spreading hatred and enmity, just like the zionists here (according to the jewish writer Naeim Giladi !!
At the time we are speaking of the global village, some people cant think further than their own neighborhood of enmity and hatred !!!
Sami, you shouldn’t have used the Coptic population in Egypt as an example, considering how severely they are discriminated against. It takes a PRESIDENTIAL DECREE to build a church in Egypt while mosques can be built without restriction. Violence against Copts in Egypt is common and very rarely are the perpetrators prosecuted. Coptic-Muslim relations in Egypt certainly are not an example to be lauded of interfaith cooperation.
The argument that “since there are no churches in Saudi Arabia there should be no mosques in America” is absolutely ridiculous, America should not lessen the rights and freedoms in the constitution to the lowest common denominator.
Sahar and Ans, you both posted the same video – Keith Olbermann is just as far on the left as Sarah Palin is on the right. My comments have all referred to a very moderate, not extreme, position which is that Muslims have the RIGHT to build a mosque there but questioning whether or not they SHOULD (which is exactly what President Obama himself said). And yes, there are synagogues and churches and strip clubs and coffee houses and other things within a 2 block radius of ground zero….the difference is that all of those buildings existed BEFORE 9/11. And again, this is not about if Muslims have the right (because as Olbermann rightly pointed out, they certainly do), but rather if they SHOULD given the sensitivity of this subject.
With rights come responsibilities – for example, I have the freedom of speech to use racial slurs all I want, but I don’t because it is offensive and inflammatory. As a more related example, many of the protesters at the proposed site yesterday held very bigoted and racists opinions – I am not one of these and condemn much of what I saw and heard from the protest. But that still doesn’t mean I support a mosque in this spot.
I also find it highly ironic that the Imam of this mosque is Sufi….and yet in many Arab countries, even Sufi Muslims have a hard time being accepted due to their beliefs….but of course in America this disagreement is a clear example “Islamophobia” (despite the fact that right now, this Imam is on a taxpayer-funded tour in the ME to promote goodwill). Oh, the hypocrisy!
Jessica…. I know that, and I wrote of this even…. Usually the ethnicities live well together unless there is an outside interference, in the Egyptian case, the European and specially American interference is clear. Outsiders sometimes provoke the ethnicities to use them in a way or another as the zionists held terrorist attacks against the Iraqi jews to force them out of Iraq to feed the colonial society in Palestine with demographic power as Naeim Giladi (reference above) stated in his book.
Sami, you are blaming American influence for why building a church in Egypt requires a Presidential decree? Or why perpetrators of crimes against Copts are rarely prosecuted?
Please. At least try to make a legitimate argument.
Also, being Coptic is not an ethnicity, it’s a religion. One cannot convert to an ethnicity, one can convert to a religion. Get your facts straight.
Jessica,
America is involved in the politics of Egypt to the bones starting from paying the Egyptian “president” a monthly salary to supporting the Copts, to interfering with their “human rights” agents…etc. When such American interference is clear, this provokes the Muslims, who are not even left alone but fought by the American agents and the American payed mercenaries !!
Sami, you need to stop listening to conspiracy theories and start checking your facts. The U.S. does not give Mubarak a monthly salary. And the Copts are in no way supported by the Egyptian government but severely discriminated against by the Egyptian government’s direct actions with regard to employment in higher sectors of the army, police, ect; not to mention all other forms of discrimination previously stated. And America doesn’t support that and in fact has decried it many times, just like it decries the discrimination Muslims face in, for example, China.
Even if what you claimed was true – and it’s not – on what planet would that be justification for Muslims in Egypt killing Copts, burning their property, ect without punishment? How bigoted and disgusting of you to diminish these crimes by displacing blame and claiming they were ‘provoked.’
You need to open your eyes and realize there is plenty of evil in this world, in all shapes, sizes, colors and religions; and the U.S. is not responsible for all of it.
Jessica,
You cant beautify the bloody face of America by accusing me with your “conspiracy theory”. I call them facts and you call them “conspiracy theory”: Doesnt America back Mubarak and his regime with at least 1 billion yearly? why? for the blue eyes of Mubarak? Doesnt America back Israel with at least 3.2 billions yearly? Why? because the zionists areblessed and “chosen” people ? Doesnt America support its “human rights” agents in the Arab world? Why? Because the American cant sleep the night well thinking of the deprived people? Doeant America support some 75 thousands mercenaries in Iraq? Why? Because America loves the Iraqis? … They love the color of the Arab oil and ready (as they do at the very moment) to kill millions of muslims to keep controlling the oil? Where are the “Mass Destruction Weapons”? Where are your beloved “human rights” in Palestine? Or maybe you can just see the “chosen” people and their “only democratic oasis” in the Middle East that segregates the Palestinian natives in bantostans !!!
AND all of this is not enough to provoke muslims? Funy dear !!
You dont need a “conspiracy” to hide all these bloody American policies… they are clear and open for everybody to see, if he’s not blinded by the American “human rights” agency !!
I am talking of FACTS dear, Does it need the Americans to give the Egyptian “president” money in his hand at the beginning of every month to say that they support him?
Jessica, I was one of the “academicians” who were asked directly to serve the American “human rights” campaign, Why? simply to fight Islam…. and to give you a hint: Dr. Ralph Salmi, from University State of California ( who run away from Iran as the Islamic revolution broke out) was one of the first who called for fighting Islam in the early 90s !!! Islam (or to say precisely the Muslim institutions like the Waqf, the charities … etc) have been started to be fought by the Americans at least as early as 1996, when they waged the compagn to deplete the Islamic financial resources and give it to their agents of “politicians” !!
We are not blind to think of “conspiracy” dear… everything is open… “conspiracy theory” is in your mind to silence all who dares to say no to the American bloody policies… it is an American weapon for silencing, just like the zionist weapon of “anti-semitism” by which they silence the truth speakers, those who really care for the human interest but not for money or oil !!
i think this is stupid thing from american to do that
and thx for article
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