The latest plot against America, we’re told, is smoldering in the ashes of 9/11. A Muslim organization wants to build a “community center,” including a mosque, two blocks from the site of the fallen World Trade Center. Republicans and leaders of other faiths are rallying against the mosque, calling it a threat to American values. But the threat to our values isn’t coming from the mosque. It’s coming from those who want to stop it.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that we all remember 9.11, what it did to this country, and how we felt. Almost nine years later, 9.11 remains an open wound…one that, unfortunately, too many with an agenda are far too willing to tear open when it serves their purpose. For Republicans, fanning the hatred of Islam and Muslims has become an article of faith and a way to pander to their base. Fear and hatred are classic Republican tools…because they work. If you don’t believe me, just refer to the career of one Richard Nixon.
If you want to know what hypocrisy looks like….
When you look at 9.11, there are widely disparate two ways to react to it. One, we can try to heal the wounds and find ways to recover that allow us to bridge our differences and minimize the hate and desire for retribution. Two, we can stew in the juices of our hatred and anger and look for ways to justify and perpetuate our differences and our hatred of those who are different. It’s taken the controversy over the Cordoba Initiative to show me just how many New Yorkers (and Americans) are still wallowing neck-deep in hatred and rage. I understand their anger (I lost a friend and college classmate in the World Trade Center), but what I don’t, can’t, and refuse to understand is their willingness to view Islam as the enemy. The Cordoba Initiative is in no way intended to further the aims of radical Islamofascism, which has as much to do with Islam as Glenn Beck has to do with Christianity. It’s stated goal is to bring people together, to promote tolerance and cooperation. Of course, the haters see only one thing: ISLAM BAD.
The stated mission of the organization behind the project, the Cordoba Initiative, is to build “interfaith tolerance and respect.” The center would include a library, gym, auditorium, and restaurant. Its purpose would be “promoting integration, tolerance of difference,” and “inter-community gatherings and cooperation.” The initiative’s chairman, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has denounced church burnings in Muslim countries, rejected Islamic triumphalism over Christians and Jews, and proposed to reclaim Islam from violent radicals such as Osama Bin Laden.
The haters have framed their arguments as defending the “sacred ground” of Ground Zero from the evildoers and their evil, godless religion that brought the Twin Towers down. They’ve seized on Islam as the reason behind the attacks, when nothing could be farther from the truth. Their argument is based on raw hatred and intolerance, and on the soft sand of their absolute conviction that America is a Christian nation. They’re determined to resist any and all efforts to foster understanding and peaceful co-existence, and they’re determined to pursue their case in court if need be. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s impassioned endorsement of the Cordoba Initiative has the haters in a hysterical tizzy, but I have to applaud Bloomberg. While I’m not normally a big fan, I admire Bloomberg in this instance for standing up and discussing the issue for what it’s about: bringing people of all faiths together. Bloomberg understands that the real issue at stake is religious freedom. There is simply no logical or rational reason to deny the Cordoba Initiative the right to proceed. Opponents simply have not proven their case, though they have vented a considerable amount of hatred against a religion they refuse to understand.
The haters are entitled to their opinions. What they’re not entitled to is being allow to aggressively force their hatred and narrow-minded religious prejudice on all of us. There is nothing in the Cordoba Initiative that speaks to the promotion or glorification of terrorism, and it’s time for the haters to back off their hateful rhetoric. It’s time for them to understand that freedom of religion is not a concept that applies only to Christians. They don’t have to like Islam, but they do need to understand that the concept of freedom of religion doesn’t apply only to those who call themselves Christians.
Islam is not the enemy. Narrow-minded zealotry and intolerance is…and it’s not Muslims who are to blame for that in this instance. Really; is it really so difficult to just try and get along??
WE DESERVE BETTER.
