There’s been a lot of talk lately about “a mosque at Ground Zero” - quelle horreur ! Newt Gingrich went so far as to suggest that we must meet this threat by undermining everything this country stands for, saying
There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
Because, you know, that’s what those crusty old founders really meant when they drafted the First Amendment: Congress should make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion – unless it’s those Mohammadans. Then – legislate away!
But, of course, come to find that it’s not really a mosque (it’s an Islamic center), it’s not “at” Ground Zero (it’s a few blocks away), and its aim and purpose is to improve relations between the Muslim world and the West (the Cordoba Initiative, the organization behind the planned center, “brings together leaders across the Muslim-West divide to speak out for innovative, proactive, and positive solutions to challenges we share”). Oh and did we mention that one of the Initiative’s advisers is Christian?
So, it seems clear that this is not about a mosque being built on the ashes of this country’s most horrific terrorist attack (though frankly, I would be fine with that, too) — no, this faux dust-up is nothing more or less than anti-Muslim hate speech, an exercise in stirring up fear and anger in the easiest, cheapest way possible.
Because Americans still fear Islam. Not extremists who claim to represent Islam, not nihilists who have twisted Islam to fit their own needs, but Islam — writ large across the hearts and souls of 1.5 billion human beings spread around the globe — in no small part because we, American society, have still not done enough to counter and correct that fear.
Some people are trying to be heard above the madness. We’ve heard from New York Mayor Bloomberg, who feels the center should keep building, because government
“shouldn’t be in the business of picking” one religion over another.
“I think it’s fair to say if somebody was going to try, on that piece of property, to build a church or a synagogue, nobody would be yelling and screaming,” the mayor said.
“And the fact of the matter is that Muslims have a right to do it, too.”
We’ve heard from some pundits and columnists, such as Matt Sledge, who rightly pointed out that
[B]y the same logical leap you can call the Cordoba Center a “mosque,” you can also call Ground Zero as it already exists a giant, open-air mosque. Muslim prayers are already taking place right on the edge of the construction site, and not for world domination. Families are going there to pray — for the souls of the dozens of innocent Muslim victims who died on September 11.
But do you know who I’d really like to hear from? The President.
Why on earth should President Obama say anything at all about the question of a piece of real estate in Manhattan?
Because he’s the President.
The status of Ground Zero, and how Americans talk about Ground Zero, is a national issue. Those who attacked New York City that day would have been just as happy to see 3,000 more die in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Omaha and Terre Haute the same day, if they could have only swung it. The attack was on this country — my country. The country of millions of Muslim Americans who have to hear these loathsome attacks on their faith (and themselves) on a daily basis.
The person who represents my country and all its many citizens to the world, the person who stands over the ashes of Ground Zero as we continue to try to make sense and find resolution, is Barack Obama. It is surely his business to discuss how this country continues to respond to that atrocity. If it’s not his business, frankly, then I don’t know who’s it might be.
Once upon a time, I wrote in the Detroit Free Press that I really, really wished that candidate Obama would stop working so hard to duck the Muslim “smear.” Sometime shortly after my piece appeared, his approach to the issue shifted somewhat, and when Colin Powell endorsed him for President, he did so with a powerful statement of support for Muslim Americans. I like to believe that adding my voice to the conversation helped push it even the wee-est bit in the direction it needed to go — so, as is my wont, you’ll find that piece (chock-a-block with information about Muslim Americans, by the way) after the jump.
But while we’re still all here on the front page, I’ll just finish up by saying this:
Mr. President: Please step in. In words as ringing and true as those you once used in Cairo, please tell those who would spread anxiety and hatred that this country is not served by religious bigotry and blind prejudice. Please step in, and defend both the Cordoba Initiative, and the rights of Muslims to pray wherever they may choose to seek their Maker. Please step in and remind us all that we will achieve a more perfect union only when we stay true to the bedrock of the American Idea: Liberty, and justice, for all.
Don’t Run From Muslims
Detroit Free Press
July 2, 2008
I am a Jewish American and an enthusiastic Barack Obama supporter. I can’t tell you how much I hope he’ll be our next president.
But for all my longing for change and insistence that “yes we can,” there’s a bee in my bonnet, a sense of real dissonance between the Obama rhetoric and the reality: the Muslim thing.
Not the idea that he might be one. No, what has me so bothered is that an American presidential candidate acts as if the word “Muslim” were a slur. And according to recent reports, the Muslim community is feeling the sting, too.
I suppose I understand. Many Americans don’t trust Islam; Pew Research recently found that 45% would be less likely to vote for a Muslim presidential candidate.
Moreover, Muslims make up a small, wildly diverse constituency, with no clout, and no other candidate to vote for (unless they’d consider someone who plans on being in Iraq for a century).
In the face of Republican fear-mongering, it was probably easy to demote the ideal of inclusion.
Instead, the campaign discusses, endlessly, the candidate’s Christianity; the third item on its “Fight the Smears” Web site reads: “Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.” Months ago, Michelle Obama characterized references to her husband’s middle name, Hussein, a “fear bomb,” and recently, two Muslim women were kept from standing behind him at a rally.
Honestly, there’s something noxious in all this — as if Obama isn’t proudly declaring his own faith, but running as fast as he can from the other.
Islam is an uplifting, ancient religion, rooted in a search for justice on God’s Earth. Diversity is both a Muslim’s lived reality (Islam is home to everyone from African Americans to Indonesians to Yemenites) and a goal: “O Mankind!” reads the Quran, Sura 49:13, “We created you … into nations and tribes, that you may know each other, not that you may despise each other.”
The Quran makes 150 references to forgiveness; interfaith activist and author Eboo Patel says he was brought back to the religion of his birth by the realization that “the core message of Islam is the establishment of an ethical, egalitarian order on Earth.”
Furthermore, American Muslims are American as apple pie. Pew found that 71% believe that “people who want to get ahead in the United States can make it, if they’re willing to work hard”; 63% see no conflict between living in modern society and leading a devout life. Possibly more to the point, three-quarters expressed concern about the global rise of Islamic extremism.
No American could be unaware of that extremism, and I, like the vast majority of my compatriots, find the nihilistic hatred preached by certain Muslims abhorrent and frightening. But as an American, I was raised to believe that we should judge people by the content of their characters, not the acts of others. I was raised to believe that in this country all are equal, everyone is innocent until proved guilty, and differences are to be respected, not despised.
I wish that rather than hand out pamphlets declaring him a “committed Christian,” Obama had held a prayer breakfast with an Imam; rather than trumpet his own faith, he’d found some praise for that of 1 billion Muslims around the globe.
Or, in the words of Keith Ellison, a Muslim and a congressman from Minnesota: “A lot of us are waiting for him to say that there’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim.”
In his “Yes We Can” speech, Obama echoed a powerful Jewish notion: tikkun olam, repairing the world — an idea that embraces not just the physical world, but the people in it, and our relationships.
To my mind, it would be a real step toward repairing the world if Obama were now to consider an equally powerful, Muslim concept: “Allah will put friendship between you and those who have been your enemies. Allah is mighty, forgiving, and merciful.”
Emily L. Hauser
Freelance Writer
OpEd Page
Detroit Free Press
************************
PS Some recommended reading on Islam (because why not? This post wasn’t long enough as is): Islam reading list.
NefariousNewt
/ August 1, 2010As much as I would like The President to say something, here is a group I wish we heard more from: the religious leaders of Islam. There has been no widespread and unified condemnation of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, no effort to block or supersede the voice of radical Imams who spew venom at the United States. There has been much silence, and not but a little grumbling, even as the numbers of radical Islamic terrorists increase, and some majority Muslim countries look the other way. Forget building Christian churches or Jewish synagogues in Saudi Arabia — why aren’t the Saudi’s blasting from every television on every channel their condemnation of their brothers, with calls to all right-thinking Muslims to deny the voices of death and embrace the light of their religion?
If this whole argument over a “mosque” near Ground Zero can be said to be anything, it can be said to be an effort by American Muslims to heal the wounds created by September 11th. But they are not the ones who should be doing the scutwork of Islam; the majority Muslim nations of the Middle East, to a place, should be trumpeting their condemnations loud and clear across their nations and across the world. They should be intervening, turning aside those who would burnish and brand Islam with the wages of death. Until that day comes, we will fight a losing battle.
EMP
/ August 4, 2010Assalum Alykum (Peace be upon you) NefariousNewt,
I’m am a Muslim American, and converted to Islam after the atrocity and horror of 9/11. I also wish that the religious leaders of Islam would unilaterally denounce the practices and positions of Al-Qaeda and radical Imam’s like Anwar al-Awlaki. One issue is however that there is not centralized leadership. There are organizations who have done just as you propose, but Islam has not had a Caliph, a leader of the Muslim nation, since the time of the Ottoman Empire. For example take the issues of Gay marriage in the church, or Gay priesthood, every individual denomination has its different take on the matter. Even the centralized leadership of the Catholic Church failed to give a centralized opinion on the scandals recently despite having one leader, the Pope. These examples display the difficulty Islamic leaders have in sending a clear message.
Besides, a clear message from them still wouldn’t change the hearts and minds of Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, nor stop the hundreds who join Jihadist organizations in poorer countries for money. Hatred and indoctrination in the extremist groups, coupled with easy money, is a motivator which would easily overcome the messages from intellectuals from abroad or at home telling them what to think.
Also, American military and political policy needs to stop adding wood to the fire. Civilian, Muslim civilian deaths, at the hand of American Predator drones. Politicians not stepping in against bans in countries like France and Belgium against the head scarf and burqa. Politicians speaking out clearly against Muslim initiatives like this Islamic center and often Muslims in general. All of this helps the Imam’s you speak of continue to feed the masses they speak to hatred instead of tolerance, if instead Muslims saw efforts to change these things maybe these Imam’s views would change or be more susceptible to positive influences to change thier opinions from friends, family, and coworkers.
Saudi Arabia is in an interesting position. It sits on both oil, and Mecca. By doing so it can’t afford to upset foreign policy nor can it take hard stances on Muslim policy since it must be open to Muslim visitors from all across the globe. This is a major reason it can’t blast the message you would want it to, first of all as I mentioned before it would not have effect on the people that matter, secondly, it would anger the mass of Muslims who are innocent by being so imprecise. I must concede however that I do hope that with the current revolutions occurring thanks in part to Obama’s policies and pressures to reduce terrorism that Saudia Arabia’s laws and policies on other religions places of worship will change.
Obama however, carefully spoken, might be able to silence the politicians rhetoric against some Islamic groups and decisions. He might even influence news opinion. However there is also the possibility that anything from him would back fire. His middle name would re-arise, people would claim that he was picking sides unfairly, and perhaps he would do more harm then good. I hope not however, I wish he would speak up on issues like this Islamic Center and make it known quite clearly how he as President and as Commander in Chief, feel about the Muslim religious community at home. (he has spoken to the community abroad but does not often speak clearly to American Muslims in those speeches, I feel)
Thanks for your time.
JCP
/ August 3, 2010Newt Gingrich, the Anti-Defamation League, and a majority of New Yorkers (www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/New-Yorkers-Oppose-Ground-Zero-Mosque-Poll-97602569.html) are opposed to the center, which includes a 2,000 seat mosque, not because they don’t support their right to do so, but because it is not the right thing to do. Couple this with the group’s imam who states that Al-Qaeda is not a terrorist organization and that the U.S. “played a part in 9/11″, and the insensitivity is blatant.
Like most Americans, I don’t hold the entirety of Islam to blame for the evil of a movement anymore than I blame all Germans for Hitler, and I, and many Americans, support their constitutional right to practice and speak without government interference. To argue in favor of this “center” next to Ground Zero by conveniently attacking a conservative who opposes this distasteful decision expresses idealism and discounts the abhorrent attitude of an imam and the deafening silence of American Islam, all of which undermines the healing process. The reaction of Muslims to this protest will tell whether their attitude is sincere or a charade. The ball is clearly in their court.
EMP
/ August 4, 2010Assalum Alykum (peace be upon you) JCP.
I’m am a Muslim American, and converted after the atrocity and horror of 9/11. I take issue with your comment about it “not being the right thing to do”, which clearly is the issue of this entire discussion. However, you base it on public opinion polls and an Imam’s statements. First of all public opinion can’t be trusted to be a good judgement of this issue, news stories are the source of information for the public mind and many have not made clear the important impartial facts to the general public. Such that the Cordoba initiative is a group interested in inter-religious cooperation and the true location of the Islamic center. Secondly, the words of the Imam, perhaps his actual opinion they represent (I would not know), should not be the judge of the entire center’s leaning. That is certainly judging the entire book by one word on its cover. Perhaps the organization should find another Imam, but nonetheless a single man does not make a group, an organization, a countries, or a religions character.
Another thing, weather or not most Americans are truly able to treat Muslims with equal respect as other fellow religious citizens is beyond my knowledge, or anyones I think. However, I would be accurate in pointing out that other countries and many of our political leaders still do not. That is the measure of respect that matters. The politicians and news casters are the ones whose voices are heard. They are shaping public policy, and public opinion. Until either those citizens you claim that see Muslims and respect them as equals speak up for their neighbors along side them in politics, or the politicians attitudes change, nothing has been achieved in the area of Muslims/American/Political relations.
Calling it an Islamic Center is both politically correct, and also factually correct. Even the “mosque” I attend is more of a community center then a place of worship, classes held daily, basketball games, dinners ect. This Islamic Center has the same intentions, but at the same time must also provide a place of worship for the believers in its community. The news articles calling it a Mosque only do it an injustice, because the good that comes out of a community center and place of worship is much greater because their is positive and beneficial action as well as prayer. I fear that many subconsciously dislike the idea of this new center because it might show very publicly what a positive minded group of Muslims can do, changing vote receiving political opinion and slowly public opinion as well.
Thank you for your time.