When people argue over religion, they tend to forget a simple question: Is it better to be happy or to be right? In societies that practice religious tolerance, the answer falls to the side of happiness. Being right on matters of God is left up in the air. That's a good practical reason to remind people that, of course, anyone who wants to build a mosque has the right to do so, even if questions of zoning, local acceptability, and so on also enter the picture. In the case of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a moderate cleric who has openly divorced himself from political issues, he can tolerantly be seen as a force for good -- he describes himself as a bridge builder between cultures.
Anyone who tries to make hay out of this issue wants to battle over who is right and who is wrong. Politicians fan public controversy for their own gain, and it's dubious if they contribute to anyone's happiness. President Obama deserves credit for making a sane, measured, adult statement about the proposed Islamic center -- that has always been his style. His later clarification, in which he said that he wasn't endorsing the center or agreeing with the wisdom of building it, gave Republicans a wedge for some flip-flop rhetoric. The kerfuffle is just that. Hamas also saw something to gain by wooing Obama, very clumsily, in their endorsement of the project, but it's an obvious ploy, as is the right wing's cry that Obama, Rauf, and Hamas are on the same page.
Moderate Muslims chafe at being put into the same box with jihadis and other extremists. Right wingers jump into the box with them, however, because it holds any kind of close-mindedness, propaganda, xenophobia, and intolerance. That's one of the perpetual ironies of such self-righteous clashes. Both sides need each other, and in their declared hostility they pretend not to notice that each is pulling one end of the same rope. It's a sign of life returning to normal that most Americans aren't interested in joining the tug of war. With a majority saying that the imam has a right to build his center, the 39% who disagree or have no opinion amount to the same percentage, more or less, that Republicans, Tea Partiers, and the right in general manage to attract at this moment. In tough times, when people are unsettled already, offering a bogey man works.
If the same Islamic center had been proposed before 9/11, it wouldn't have attracted the slightest notice beyond zoning hearings. If it had been proposed the day after 9/11, one shudders to think about what Rauf would have been exposed to. But people are in a shadow zone right now, worried about terrorists, suspicious of Islam despite their best intentions, and jumpy about the Muslims among us who are doing nothing more dangerous than seeking a place to worship in their own way. Beneath the surface, it's really our own consciousness that remains in uncertainty. One looks forward to the day when Muslims are not forced into the same box with their irate counterparts on the opposite side. That box is too full already.
Published in the Washington Post
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Joseph Ward III: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf Speaks Out (AUDIO, TRANSCRIPT)
David Shasha: 'Ground Zero Mosque' Controversy and the Pitfalls of the Interfaith Dialogue Movement
Salam Al Marayati: 5 Questions Swirling Around the 'Ground Zero Mosque' Debate
Islam is not building the religious facility. Imam Rauf is. He is not Islam.
Ask yourself:
1. What if Christians made up 1 percent of the population?
2. What if crazed Evangelicals flew planes into the Twin Towers and only 1 out of 30 of the 3000 dead were Christians?
3. What if 10 years later a moderate Catholic wanted to build a religious facility on a site they couldn't have and wouldn't have chosen except for the atrocity?
Answer: The Jews and Muslims and Sikhs and Atheists who lost family, and the non-Christian country at large, who don't know much about Christianity, would associate the two groups wrongfully, and the religious facility would seem like a slap in the face, even though it's not meant to be.
And a cleric, a man of God, should not cause that much pain in order to demonstrate how non-violent and normal his faith is, or promote interfaith harmony, when he can move a few blocks away, reduce needless suffering, achieve the same goals, and continue his good works.
ANY decent cleric of ANY religion would feel that way. Rauf doesn't, and he's a jerk. This isn't that hard. Islam is not the problem. Imam Rauf is. Oh yeah. And so are Gingrich, and Palin and Lazio, but not Dean, because he gets it.
The community center would be built and the community would be better for it. No one outside that community would ever know it was built.
This is not an issue. The imam did not make it an issue. Right wing propagandists made it an issue. Sorry, if you are looking to be the man in the middle by attacking both sides you end up on the wrong side of what are the facts.
I really wish this wasn't an issue. But there is a reasoned, non-bigoted, non-unconstitutional, non-"when they came for me, there was no one left", non-"if you had your way there'd still be Jim Crow," argument for opposing p$%^&ng off so many people, and playing into the hands of Palin and Gingrich etc., and I took my best shot at it above.
Maybe 7 out of 10 Americans, with an African American president, Muslim Miss America (insert your own ad infinitum list of evidence of religious, racial, ethnic, tolerance here) are hopeless bigots, or New York and the Country as a whole are reacting emotionally, and not intellectually, to something that still hurts after ten years, and Rauf is sticking his thumb in the wound when he doesn't have to.
Yeah! one should wait till a mosque is burn down with 4 children or one should wait till the treatment of Muslims is comparable to that of other minorities had undergone before the Muslims complain?
Sick mentality.
For some reason ONLY the feelings and rights of muslim are important and must be counted. No one else has any rights, not even to an opinion, let alone give expression to that opinion, unless, of course, they chime in to the one approved by the muslim community.
where are you getting that krap?
This isn't about the center.This is about hate..just plain hate and the people pushing it.
They hide behind the word "insensitive" but their real agenda is far more hateful and provocative.
http://sioaonline.com/
http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/07/sioa-is-an-anti-muslim-hate-group/
By the way, I am a Democrat, and have not put myself in any box, nor do I hate anyone. For anyone to make declaration about me, or any boxes I am in, and all the others similar demarcations are being made about, is rather presumptive and dumb. You do not know *THESE PEOPLE*. You do not know me, or what motivates me.
The clinical psychiatrist Dr David Hawkins wrote a fascinating book on the topic, Power vs Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior.
On one hand, there are people who understand the Constitution and lofty principles this country was founded upon.
On the other hand, there are people so trapped by their fears and prejudices that they can't for a moment consider how those principles actually apply.
Like I said, a non-discussion.
They say it's a religion of peace, but in my lifetime it's been nothing but an agent of death, destruction, and murder.
Which is it?
If you honestly answer that question, you'll see that Islam is not a religion of death, destruction and murder any more than any other religion or creed is. The fact that there are some nuts--some criminal nuts--who use Islam as an excuse for their violence notwithstanding.
We lament not hearing from the moderates (I prefer to call them the mainstream of Islam) but when we do we tell them to sit down, shut up, move to the back of the bus.
There will ALWAYS be criminals in any society and they will act, irrespective of how you many police there are or how you feel about their act.
But to draw a gross generalization upon an entire people (African Americans 4 example), entire country, or an entire religion based on those aberrational acts, you become a small-minded, sterotyping bigot.
"Those who know nothing about Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those people are witless. Islam says: 'Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all!' Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by the infidel? Islam says: 'Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter them.' Islam says: 'Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword.' The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim."
You can 'scare' people by the sword and bombs (but they'll always resist and not believe in their hearts), but touch their hearts and that's how they'll profess faith forever.
Now lets go bomb them some more after 'freeing them' in Iraq, since they elected a pro-Ayatollah government.
The lies and hatred bout Islam that these bigots peddle would be laughable if it weren't affecting policy and our Constitutional freedoms.
"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step..."
BTW, I like our metaphor of the rope: "That's one of the perpetual ironies of such self-righteous clashes. Both sides need each other, and in their declared hostility they pretend not to notice that each is pulling one end of the same rope."
In other words, the jihadists and right-wingers are playing the same demonizing game. Too often, when people say, "Look, there's the devil," they are pointing at an image in a mirror.
All thats happening may well tricle down to some mountain village of ignorant illiterate fools where a qaeda spokesman clains: You see these americans they hate us, how long till they break our mosques in afganistan...and probably add more salt and lies to the issue just as haters on the western side are doing. Except well they happen to be on the more outspoken and lawless part of the world with a history of unstabilituy and violence (not helped by mindgames between the USA and USSR beforey they gained some sovereighnity)
That's usually the way it is in a war.