For some, the Cordoba Center is a no-brainer.
There are those who can't understand what all the fuss is about. Of course the Cordoba Center should be built two blocks from Ground Zero. Any opposition tramples on America's tradition of religious freedom and smacks of Islamophobia. How could we possibly yield to bigotry? Isn't the center meant to be an answer to intolerance?
For others, the opposite holds true. Allowing a Muslim facility to rise anywhere near the site where Islamist terrorists murdered thousands is sacrilegious and deeply offensive, especially to the victims and their families. How could we be so "politically correct" or gullible to allow this to happen? Does our tolerance also extend to intolerance?
For many of us, though, it's a tough decision.
Yes, America, above all, stands for freedom of worship -- for all, not for some. Religious bigotry has no place here. And, we desperately need greater dialogue and understanding, especially with Islam.
But in this vast country, why, of all places, does the center need to be there? Will it really serve as a place for healing, repentance, and interfaith cooperation? Or will that prove a facade, designed to get the project approved and divert attention from the fact that the 9/11 plotters all prayed in mosques and believed they were acting in the divine name?
To be sure, it is a difficult call, but that can't be an excuse for indecision. This is an important national issue. For the American Jewish Committee (AJC), with a long involvement in this country's social history, it is, above all, about the kind of society -- and world -- we aspire to build.
Indeed, the very first Supreme Court case for which AJC submitted an amicus brief, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, involved a fundamental question of religious freedom. At issue was an Oregon law designed to prevent parents from sending their children to Catholic schools. AJC grasped the stakes in the case and sided with the Catholic parents. In its 1925 decision, the Supreme Court agreed.
More recently, AJC helped rebuild the Gay's Hill Baptist Church in Millen, Georgia, after a hate-inspired arson attack. We provided funds to repair St. Clement's of Rome, a Catholic Church in New Orleans, after the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina. When Turkish Muslims were the object of a deadly hate crime in Germany, we traveled to a Cologne mosque to stand with the victims' families at the funeral service. And when Muslims were in the crosshairs of Slobodan Milosevic's policy of ethnic cleansing, AJC supported Bosnian and Kosovar Muslims against the deadly violence spawned by the Serb leader.
In this ecumenical spirit, AJC believes the Cordoba Center has a right to be built in the proposed location.
Unlike many Muslim countries, where it can be difficult, if not impossible, to get a building permit for non-Muslim houses of worship, in America we celebrate our tradition of freedom of worship and seek to set an example for others.
While intolerance is rapidly growing in some European countries -- witness the recent referendum in Switzerland to ban the construction of minarets -- we reject that kind of narrow-mindedness and the fear it bespeaks.
We hope the Cordoba Center will fulfill the lofty mission its founders have articulated. They have set the bar high, describing it as a Muslim-inspired institution similar to the 92nd Street Y. If so, it means a facility truly open to the entire community -- and to a wide spectrum of ideas based on peace and coexistence.
Once up and running, it won't be long before we know if the founders have delivered on their promise. If so, New York and America will be enriched. If not, the center should be shunned.
Presently, there are two legitimate concerns about the proposed center.
First, with a $100 million price tag, what are the exact sources of funding? The public has a right to know that the donors all subscribe to an open, inclusive and pluralistic vision of the center.
Second, do the center's leaders reject unconditionally terrorism inspired by Islamist ideology? They must say so unequivocally. This is critical for the institution's credibility. There is no room here for verbal acrobatics. Otherwise, the pall of suspicion around the leaders' true attitudes toward groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah will grow -- spelling the center's doom.
If these concerns can be addressed, we will join in welcoming the Cordoba Center to New York. In doing so, we would wish to reaffirm the noble values for which our country stands -- the very values so detested by the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks.
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Building in the area the you purpose can be seen as nothing but a slap in the face to New york City and America. If your hearts are to promote unitity certainly you could understand the pain induced in the hearts of Americans by your current course of action. Thousands were slain in the name of your religion so near to the purposed location. To build anything in the name of the same religion so close is like saying, "We agreed with the actions of those who killed thousands of Americans and as an Act of Triumph we will build a place of worship in that location." If Muslims do not intend this to be the message they are conveying, they will chose another location.
First, with a $100 million price tag, what are the exact sources of funding? The public has a right to know that the donors all subscribe to an open, inclusive and pluralistic vision of the center.
Second, do the center’s leaders reject unconditionally terrorism inspired by Islamist ideology? They must say so unequivocally. This is critical for the institution’s credibility. There is no room here for verbal acrobatics. Otherwise, the pall of suspicion around the leaders’ true attitudes toward groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah will grow – spelling the center’s doom.” (David Harris).
I agree with David Harris’ concerns, however, his concerns are grounds in my opinion for “indecision”.
In addition because something is legal doesn’t make it desirable. If a sectarian institution so close to “sacred ground” for all Americans, violates the sensibilities of many people, it defeats the announced purpose of “healing”. This in itself is grounds for good faith reconsideration by the organizers. I have heard no objections to a center, only the specific location as well as David Harris’ two enunciated concerns.
This is not a religious freedom issue. It is not a “local” zoning issue. It is an emotional national issue.
One may ask a stupid question, Is New York city in Israel or USA..? Why certain Jewish commentators opt to ignore or exclude the fact there were American Muslims who also died in 9/11 attacks and their families have endured the same as the rest of other families..?
I can’t phantom why ADL and AJC publicizing or stressing so much on their past contribution to fight against bigotry and injustice in this country in order to justify their position to this project.
Would someone take the pains and please talk to me like I’m six years old and explain to me what exactly I’m missing in this picture….?
Thanks in advance,
See this Rick Sanchez video interviewing Rabbi Waskow of the Shalom Center, he disagree's with the ADL's position..
http://ricksanchez.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/03/rabbi-not-all-muslims-tarred-with-terrorism/
Imam Abdul Rauf wrote a book called "What's Right With Islam Is What's Right with America"
In a 60 Minutes interview shortly after the September 11 attacks Imam Rauf said, "Fanaticism and terrorism have no place in Islam" and went on to say, "I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but the United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened."[3] When the interviewer asked Rauf how he considered the U.S. an accessory, the Imam replied, "Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA."[4]
Is that good enough? There's no denying that Osama and the Taliban were funded and trained by the US. Maybe "unintentional" accomplice would have been better, but aren't we splitting hairs?
He does say "fanatacism and terrorism have no place in Islam." I don't really see any equivocation there.
It may be true but why not condemn real actions and actual participants in terrorism acting under Islam banner?? It's like hypocritically condemning abortions and promoting it in pure countries at the same time.
Innocent lives have been lost on both sides in every war in history.
What is special about this one that makes America an accessory to 9/11 and makes bin Laden "made in America?"
Nobody, however, is proposing that Sharia - or Kosher law, or any other religious law - be allowed to trump our laws here on U.S. soil. Eating only halal meat would be fine, while stoning would be first-degree murder.
It's only a poke in the eye if terrorist do it. Muslims did not. That is the racist view you hold, but claim does not exist.
"just out of respect for the families of the people lost in 9/11"
Muslims died too in the attacks, but you love to ignore them.
"and using our own laws to do what they want and calling everyone racist, when they disagree. "
OUR LAWNS? That statement is 100% proof of your Islamophobia and Xenophobia. Muslims can be American too. But they "are not one of us"? Of course you are racist. Like many other ignorant people in the world.
Look beyond your narrow view.
it's the people who fight islamic terrorists... it's the people who denounce islamic fascism... do you denounce islamic radicalism?
Please take a look at this video from a co-sponsor of the proposed mosque:
http://charterforcompassion.org/learn/talks/imam-faisal-abdul-rauf
Christians. Should we be against building a Christian church two blocks away from the Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City?
Look at this video from a co-sponsor of the proposed mosque:
http://charterforcompassion.org/learn/talks/imam-faisal-abdul-rauf
Christians. Should we be against building a Christian church two blocks away from the Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City?
Look at this video from a co-sponsor of the proposed mosque:
http://charterforcompassion.org/learn/talks/imam-faisal-abdul-rauf
Christians. Should we be against building a Christian church two blocks away from the Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City?
Look at this video from a co-sponsor of the proposed mosque:
http://charterforcompassion.org/learn/talks/imam-faisal-abdul-rauf
the mosque there.
Muslim "crazies" will broadcast the establishment of a mosque at Ground Zero as a symbol of their victory over the Great Satan and an important step toward establishing their world-wide caliphate. No rational person would think that way -- but Muslim extremists are not rational.
But in the real world, there is a world of pain involved in that decision. The danger is, of course, that somewhere down the line, some angry citizen is going to take it upon himself to act against that center.
I could expect it to be bombed at some point. Feelings run that high about this issue in some parts of the citizenry. I think the Islamic community is being at once, both extraordinarily insensitive to the American community, and incredibly shortsighted.
Also, building in that location gives the appearance of great arrogance.
911 perpetrators were not Americans, the people building the center ARE Americans; what are you suggesting Muslims are not American community material?
I know it took a lot of courage to take this stand when so many other Americans, in the name of America, are taking the opposite. I heartily praise you because you are one Jew who remembers our long often blood-filled history of intense persecution, hatred, bigotry and banishment. I support your call in doing this for people around the world, both Muslim and non-Muslim, to recognize the difference between Islam, a religion of peace and brotherhood, and Islamiscism, a ideology of hatred and horror, not unlike many movements that promote hatred and violence in the name of Christ and of Jewish supremacy in certain places. And as I believe true Christians and true Jews who follow their respective religions' tenets should loudly denounce these abuses among those claiming to be followers, so too should adherents of Islam be the first to loudly denounce the practices of terrorist groups, and, as such, you are absolutely correct in asserting the the proponents of the Cordoba Center should denounce the horrors of September 11, 2001 in the location they propose to build their center of healing and compassion. And one thing can be said about the European perpetrators of hatred nowadays. They are anti-Semitic in the truest sense. They don't discriminate when it comes to the sons of Shem. They are as anti-Moslem as they are anti-Jew.
Just small correction, there are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world of which 19 to 21% are Arabs who are Semites, if you know what the term implies to..!
Words are cheap. Let's see some action. Remove the texts that support Islamic supremacy through jihad out of Islam.
That is the root cause of 9/11, not American foreign policy or support of the Taliban against the Russians.
There is a reason there are no Quaker or Jain terrorists. It's the texts.
That isn't LAW.
Your dreaming up the "revenge" motive says more about you than about the Muslims in New York. Look at this video from a co-sponsor of the proposed mosque:
http://charterforcompassion.org/learn/talks/imam-faisal-abdul-rauf
Go and find it out and you will be suprised...!!!
In effect, you have said that all Muslims are "fundamentalist, Radical Muslims". If this isn't the essence of bigotry, I don't know what is.