A Few Thoughts on the Ground Zero Mosque

Apparently having nothing else to focus on this Summer, the media has been all over the proposed Islamic Community Center near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack.  Dubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque”, pundits on the right have been mercilessly pummeling Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf for even suggesting placing the center two blocks from the site of the worst terrorist attack on America in its history, perpetrated by Muslims.  What an insult to the memory of the 3,000 innocent souls who perished at the hands of fanatics determined to bring down wicked America and convert it into a Muslim state observing Sharia Law!  How. dare. you.

When all the wharrgarbl abated, cooler heads stepped forward and reaffirmed a key point that protesters had glossed over:  the First Amendment.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that there was nothing wrong with them building the center in the currently abandoned Burlington Coat Factory.  No laws or building code prevented it.  The zoning laws are okay with it, too.  President Obama, already under suspicion for his Muslim ties in Kenya, also waded in.  It might have more power if he hadn’t backtracked a bit the next day.  He said there was nothing wrong with building a mosque, or any other house of worship at that site, but he didn’t say he endorsed the idea of building it.  A little too lawyerly to be of any use, I fear.

First off, let’s stop calling it the “Ground Zero Mosque”.  It makes it sound like they’re building a minaret directly on the former World Trade Center site.  With the remains of some victims still believed to be buried there, that would be provocatively creepy.  It’s actually two blocks away.  That’s the same distance that the Jewish Holocaust Museum is from the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.  It’s enough on the periphery that you might not even see it from whatever garish atrocity they will eventually erect at Ground Zero as a memorial.  There’s a strip club and a sex shop located the same distance as the proposed Cordoba House.  Are those referred to as the “Ground Zero Titty Bar” and the “Ground Zero Rubber ‘n Lube”?  There are also Christian churches and a mosque just four blocks away.  Will they have to move, too?  Considering the seedy nature of the immediate environs, an Islamic Fellowship Center would be an improvement.

And what should go into the abandoned Burlington Coat Factory in its place?  Another overpriced celebrity eatery or mall?  How is that honoring the memory of the victims?  And if nothing goes in there, isn’t it morbid that we’re turning that entire neighborhood into a blighted mausoleum?  Wouldn’t it be more galling to the fanatics who think they delivered a crushing blow to the American way of life if we rebuilt the area into a thriving part of the city?  An Islamic Fellowship Center would be indisputable proof that America is more resilient, tolerant and forgiving than any capital in the former Caliphate.

Conservatives hammer on the idea that moderate Muslims should step up and speak out against the radical part of its religion.  Isn’t that what Imam Rauf is trying to do?  President Bush identified Rauf as a partner after 9/11 to reassure the Muslim community that America was not going to war with Islam.  We were going to war with al-Qaeda.  America was founded on religious freedom and tolerance.  It the reason those pilgrims piled onto rickety boats and set off for the New World in the first place.  The first colonies were founded on different religious principles:  Quakers in Pennsylvania; Puritans in Massachusetts; Catholics in Rhode Island, etc.  Lost in all the falderal is the fact that 300 Muslims perished in the attack on the World Trade Center.  Christians, Jews and Athiests were also killed.  No one was spared because of their beliefs.

Also, the term mosque is being abused.  Yes, there will be a section of the center reserved for Muslim prayer.  But that isn’t the main function of the building.  Critics seem to forget that there is a mosque in the Pentagon—another site of the 9/11 attack.  There’s even a Shinto temple located at Pearl Harbor to honor the Japanese dead.  Didn’t they attack us?  Why do they get a memorial?  Ah, right…the First Amendment.  Conservatives rub their hands together in glee when they can use the Constitution to defend their precious beliefs.  But when it comes to the Constitution protecting ideas they find abhorrent, they shake their hammy little fists.  Too many historians to mention reaffirm that we have an obligation to defend Constitutional principles, even when they protect ideas or beliefs we hate.  The First Amendment protects the rights of Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Scientologists, Raelians, and any other faith under the sun. 

The Cordoba House isn’t a training ground for terrorists.  It’s the first step in winning the hearts and minds of the Islamic Street.  After attacking Iraq and Afghanistan, Muslims are wary of American intentions in the Middle East.  The “Ground Zero Mosque” could be a shining example of why they’re wrong about us, and an affirmation of why America is as great as it is.

Source: http://lumgowee.blogspot.com/2010/08/few-thoughts-on-ground-zero-mosque.html