In 1630, John Winthrop sailed across the Atlantic Ocean seeking sacred ground. Hounded in England, the Puritans would be free to worship as they wished in the New World. A footnote in someone else's story over there, they would author their own destiny here. But Winthrop didn't expect the soil here to contain special sacraments. The blessing was in what they would build.
I've thought about Winthrop a lot, in light of the controversies ranging from Cordoba House to the movement to ban Sharia. I've thought about the discussion about Ground Zero being sacred ground.
I believe Ground Zero is sacred. I believe every inch of America is sacred. I believe, in an era where more and more people are convinced that different faiths are fated to fight, America is nothing short of a mercy upon all the worlds. And I believe that even though the headlines these days scream "Muslim," the heart of the matter is really about America.
America ushered in a very new idea -- a place where people from the four corners of the earth gather to build a nation -- a nation that allows its citizens to participate in its progress, to play a part in its possibility.
Even in the early days, America was (comparatively speaking) a diverse nation. And today, diaspora groups of just about every religious conflict on the planet reside here, often cheek by jowl. They play football together in high school, study together for exams on college campuses, program together at Google. It's one of the most remarkable achievements of our nation, and one of the most fragile.
How a society engages its diversity is one of the most important questions of the 21st century. Are some groups free or favored and others not? Are the different communities at each other's throats? In America, people will have their identities respected, their freedoms protected and their safety secured. They will be encouraged to cultivate good relationships with fellow Americans from other backgrounds. And they will be invited -- and expected -- to contribute to the common good of their country.
Take the 573 Catholic hospitals in the United States, which treat over 85 million patients a year. And the 231 Catholic colleges and universities and the seven thousand Catholic elementary and high schools, which educate over 2 million students a year, a third of whom are racial and ethnic minorities and a significant percentage non-Catholic.
Without the concrete contributions of Catholics, countless kids would not get educated, countless addicts would not get clean, countless hungry people would not get fed. A similar story can be told of other communities, from Jews to African-Americans, Latinos to gays and lesbians.
In his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance address, Martin Luther King Jr. described himself as a "trustee." It is a word that resonates with every Muslim in America. In Sura Two of the Holy Quran, we are told that we were created with the breath of God and appointed His trustee, His steward on His blessed creation. We are enjoined to advance the right to the protection of: life, family, dignity, education, religion and property. These sound remarkably like the privileges enumerated in America's founding documents. In the Islamic tradition, they are known as the six fundamentals of Sharia. Muslims are commanded to secure these for ourselves, and for others.
For centuries, Muslims have contributed to their brothers and sisters in America. Muhammad Ali is one of our most celebrated sports icons, Fazlur Rahman Khan helped design the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building in Chicago, Lupe Fiasco has one of today's hottest albums.
As a new generation inspired by Muslim ethics and American ways comes of age, we seek to make more institutional contributions. It is a requirement of both faith and nation. Cordoba House was one such effort. It was never meant to be a private space for Muslims, but a public space for community gathering -- which is one of the reasons that the local board in Lower Manhattan voted overwhelmingly in its favor.
On this Fourth of July, as we reflect on the mercy that is America and the contributions of all its citizens, let us take a moment to remember Abdoul-Kareem Traore, who came from the Ivory Coast seeking sacred ground. Every morning, he woke early to say his prayers, left for his first job delivering newspapers before his wife and kids opened their eyes, continued on to his second job as a cook at Windows on the World.
As Hadidjatou Karamoko Traore rushed to leave for her English class on September 11, 2001, she got a phone call from her husband's brother. Had Abdoul-Kareem gone to work that day? He had.
She could not understand what was happening. Relatives had to translate the horror unfolding. She kept calling his phone. It kept ringing and ringing. The children started asking. "He's coming," she told them.
He never came. And they never found his body.
"I like to go down there and pray and see the place and remember," said Mrs. Traore. "When I go there, I feel closer to him. And him to me. I pray for him, too."
On the anniversary of Abdoul-Kareem's death, the family makes a pilgrimage to the hole where the buildings once were, where his bones are mixed and buried with the bones of three thousand of his compatriots, on the lower tip of the island that many people consider a city on a hill.
There are others who visit that day. Others praying, and weeping.
The Traore family prays in Arabic, to the one God whom Muslims insist is the all-Merciful, even during moments that are unfathomable, in a country they are proud to call home, blessing by their loss and their presence a place that everyone agrees is sacred ground.
(Adapted from remarks at the Aspen Institute's America the Inclusive Event on March 30, 2011.)
Follow Eboo Patel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EbooPatel
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If we're going to be an example to others and each other, we need to be honest about where we came from and the struggles we've been through. Glossing over our negative historical moments is a cop-out and, I would argue, makes it even harder to relate to.
“So then what intelligentce created the intelligence that created our intelligence.”
My reply!
Ditto! This is why atheist, and these big bang groupies always only want to stay on message and just knock intelligent design. For their counter argument always leaves them exposed to the question, the big gorilla in the room, "yeah but - where's does the intelligence if not from God coming from? And that of cause bring the conversation back to "God the Creator of All Things - the Only Power Source and Designer of the Universe!"
A good column, Mr. Patel. May I point out that in your last paragraph, "whom" should be "who": Muslims insist (that) who [the one God] is the all-Merciful .... The object of "insist" is the noun clause, not the relative pronoun.
Keep up the good work.
It doesn't take intelligence to create intelligence, intelligence is the sort of thing that can, and inevitably will, evolve on its own, an argument that doesn't have to be articulated because it articulates itself by simple common sense. The idea that intelligence didn't evolve naturally but was created by some prior intelligence is an interesting one, but you would need some sort of evidence to back it up for it to be worth considering.”
My reply!
Huff readers, do we hear this guy, another brainiac states,“ we need proof, that it takes a intelligent designer to create intellent products – in this case all creations, and the heavens!
No, I do not have to prove a thing! For anyone with a brain knows, its common sense, and a given – “One needs an intelligent source “to create anything that has a degree of intellignece from low intelligence to muirs, mankind! It is your nutty conclusions that has to prove a case for “complete darkness upstairs (i.e., Da a brain!),” to create something as magical, and beyond complex as the universe, man, and all other creations!
The common sense of intelligent design has been uprooted by the evidence of evolution, for which there is massive genetic and biological evidence even in small time frames (months and years).
I would also add that Humes made the same appeal to common sense, and even on purely logical grounds well before the time of Darwin it was easy to disprove him: If intelligence requires a more intelligent creator, then who created the more intelligent creator? And so on and so on.
When people do not see this simple reasoning - they just do not want to beleive! Simple!
Your argument is basically, nature has the force of intelligence. Okay, where did nature get the force?
You basically do not want to give in to the fact, there is a God.
1. ground is not sacred, it is dirt
2. books are not holy, they are manmade words on paper
3. humans were not made by a god, they evolved from one celled life
Yes indeed, that is the biggest question of biology at the moment. Prayer didnt work
very well in finding an answer beyond, god did it. So stay tuned and dont be surprised if pretty good answers are forthcoming in your lifetime. With each new discovery even more questions will be asked by inquiring minds. Isnt it marvelous?
F and F
"Some people tell you they have found the way,
But I learned all about what they have to say.
And even though I know when I should just shut my mouth,
I gotta say that crusade they’re on is only goin’ south."
"I think that after all is said and done,
We will be one for all, and all for one.
To just one truth do many faiths plead.
To just one way do many paths lead."
"Now lots of people say that they know God’s name,
But to me they all just speak of the same,
Of the Great Spirit-Parent who loves us all.
Why fight over a name? Why don’t we tear down that wall?"
© 2009 The Try Try Again Project (TTAP)
There's more to the song. Listen at http://www.soundclick.com/ttap.
My family is Muslim and we were run out of the old country for political reasons. Could we have gone to another Muslim country and asked for shelter? NO absolutely NOT. All these leaders of Nations that fly the flag of Islam have only one job stay in power and fill their Swiss bank accounts. Only in America did my family get asylum, so with all it's fault and corrupt politicians and bankers it is still the best country in the world.
Remember this:
QUOTATION: The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, “My country, right or wrong.” In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.
ATTRIBUTION: Senator CARL SCHURZ, remarks in the Senate, February 29, 1872, The Congressional Globe, vol. 45, p. 1287.
Eboo Patel is a bit too saccharine for my tastes. Perhaps he thinks that by paying enough obeisance to America, Americans will overlook the tendencies toward political hegemony, obtained by violence if necessary and sanctioned by scripture within Islam. I want the Eboo Patels of the world to talk about about reformation within Islam!