"You've got to be kidding me," I thought to myself when I heard that the ADL had come out against the location of Cordoba House. An organization dedicated to fighting bias is telling Americans who happen to pray in Arabic that it's "not right" to build an institution focused on interfaith cooperation in their own neighborhood?
I gave my wife an earful that morning. Why didn't the ADL oppose the Off-Track Betting parlors and strip joints in the neighborhood if they are so concerned about the sacredness of Ground Zero? Why didn't they oppose churches near the site of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where Eric Rudolph -- a terrorist who claimed inspiration from Christianity -- set off a bomb?
And then when I heard Abe Foxman, the ADL's outspoken National Director, say, "If you want to heal us, don't do it in our cemetery," I had to close my eyes and take a few deep breaths. American Muslims are part of the us. It is our cemetery, too. The terrorists attacked us, too.
So when I got a phone call from Abe Foxman inviting me to join a new committee that the ADL has put together to fight protests against mosques in America, I could barely suppress the urge to say "take a hike." But, in the Ramadan spirit of patience and forbearance, I decided to have a conversation instead of hang up the phone.
I told him I disagreed with his position on Cordoba House, and then I asked him a few questions. "I see the anti-mosque protests as a symptom of a far larger issue, the problem of an increasingly mainstream anti-Muslim bigotry. Are you willing to talk about that?"
He was.
"This anti-Muslim bigotry didn't drop from the sky; it's been manufactured and advanced by what I call the industry of Islamophobia. Will you call them out?"
He would.
"The ADL has significant political capital, a century-long history of fighting bias and a staff of 350 people all over the country. Will fighting anti-Muslim bigotry become a real priority for your institution?"
He said yes.
In fact, he'd already started.
In a recent Huffington Post piece, Foxman quoted Franklin Graham's ugly comments about Islam at length and said, "This kind of bigotry and stereotyping against a great world religion is contrary to everything that America stands for."
He went on to say, "The Rev. Graham's remarks just scratch the surface of a deeply entrenched problem in our society of anti-Muslim scapegoating."
And more importantly, he pointed the finger at the appropriate perpetrators: "Several groups with extreme anti-Muslim agendas have launched public campaigns that have both sheltered and fueled this bigotry."
He also told the Washington Post exactly what he thought about Dutch Islamophobe Geert Wilders' presence at the anti-Cordoba House rally to be held on 9/11 :
[Wilders] is a bigot, he's an anti-Muslim bigot, and one of the demonstrations being called for is being headed by someone who has an anti-Muslim agenda, often under the guise of fighting "radical Islam." The group vilifies Islamic faith and is engaged in [claiming] there's a conspiracy to destroy American values, which is nonsense.
I might have added a few curse words for emphasis, but otherwise it's hard to improve on those comments.
The ADL, of course, is far more than Foxman's statements. It's a huge organization with massive programmatic impact. I spoke with the ADL Chicago leadership -- people I know, like and have worked with for years -- and they assured me that their programs were going to include far more direct material on anti-Muslim bigotry.
Anti-Muslim bigotry is becoming a national crisis. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. The ADL has a major platform, an important constituency and serious institutional capacity.
When considering whether I would join the task force, I asked myself a simple question: Will I have more impact on reducing anti-Muslim bigotry and building American pluralism by accepting this invitation? In my view, the answer to that is an unequivocal yes.
Here's a question I'm likely to get: Is my presence helping the ADL burnish its reputation after it was tainted through the Cordoba House position? Let me respond with a story.
My first job out of college was teaching urban minority high school dropouts in an alternative education program in inner city Chicago. Back then, the Chicago ADL ran a day-long anti-bias conference for high school students. Somehow, they found out about our program, invited my students and comped their registration. The conference focused on the problem of bigotry broadly, inclusive of groups ranging from gays and lesbians; to African-Americans, Latinos and Indians; to Muslims and Jews. My students loved it; they appreciated how stereotypes about urban minorities were called out, and they learned from the discussions about bias towards groups they knew little about.
"This organization is for everybody," one of my students told me at the end of the day.
Muslims need an ADL that's for everybody. Jews need an ADL that's for everybody. America needs an ADL that's for everybody. My work on this committee will be in the service of that vision.
Follow Eboo Patel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EbooPatel
ADL: Fighting Anti-Semitism, Bigotry and Extremism
Anti-Defamation League - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mosque at Ground Zero - ADL
Anti-Defamation League Comes Out Against Ground Zero Mosque
Fareed Zakaria to return Anti-Defamation League award over ground ...
Who cares what you don't "buy?" Take your problem with the 65% to the FBI. The point is, the guy who thinks we have an "Islamophobia" crisis does not know what he is talking about. There is no crisis. No one is trying to deride, deprive or deport Muslims for being Muslim. They are the victims of hate crimes no more than Christians. Imagine, Islamic terrorists murder almost 3,000 people and CAIR wants you to think Muslims are victimized by vicious bigots because 70% of Americans do not want a mosque near the resting place of those killed. The Muslim psychiatrist in the army? -- the one who killed all those soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas? -- in a few moments, he killed more innocent people than all the innocent victims thought to be Muslims, or were, in fact, Muslims, and were killed by Americans seeking revenge for 9/11, since the attack 9 years ago. Americans are extremely tolerant, and despite the periodic acts of terrorism, whether from abroad or by domestic terrorists, there remains no national phobia against the Muslim population.
I needn't say more.
You proved my point.
A graceful way out for all parties.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g0eHMurZgpoAsdtQaQlZcGjS8f1wD9I4KMH80
Bear in mind that the people we *both* have the biggest problems are themselves 'scriptural literalists.' And they do tend to project.
I suggest you treat these problems as such.
I suggest humanity. :)
The fact is, that for the most part Islam is *not* considered to have any interest whatsoever in valuing real pluralism. Kind of like Mormons: they don't usually want *religious freedom and pluralism,* only to be among the 'in-crowd' of people trying to convert others.
Most people don't *know* Muslims and that has much to do with Muslims' own condemnation of and isolationism toward the very cultures they want to accept them.
You *do* get a lot of uncalled-for fear and hate and all the rest, but to be very honest, there's still a lot of justifiable problems with attitudes of saying, 'Let us in with the control, our book might mean don't treat Jews and Christians *too* bad!'
All realism aside, you have a *lot* of mouthpieces who don't *really* want pluralism. Try and treat an American Pagan like me like we deserve conversion, treat America like 'conversion fields.'
You've been one of the few voices that it seems is willing to try and speak of pluralism *to Muslim people.*
Few can even hide the 'convert the world' agenda, that Christians usually rationalize in themselves but recognize *damn well* in others.
I say, if you want to support a pluralistic America, great. If you just want in on theocracy, you're on your own.
Why I Joined Fox New's Anti-Islamophobia Task Force
Convinces me that this must be, in all the multiverse, the 'worst of all possible worlds in which we're not all dead.' :)
Think about it: hundreds of our elected best and brightest claiming the 'Ten Commandments' are the basis of all their jobs are based on, thus must be graven in stone everywhere... Or else 'God is being taken out of the world,.. Can't recite them. Even name them accurately, even in translation, yet say 'This is the Word Of God To Impose On The Electorate!'
It's kind of like, 'You know, if 'Islam' even *did* catch on in America, who says anyone'd understand it any better here than elsewhere?'
Come on, people. There's actual work to be doing. If you believe in a God of pop quizzes, bullying won't help you.
It's a lot easier to be spiritual about religion when Glenn Beck ain't holding up economic recovery.
...How bout *Don't.*
Then write the prayers about it.
Gods.
You have no idea what we're squandering, here, some of you, do you?
I can see Eboo's point.
Poor guy has to write at the Washington Post.
If you are really interested in having an impact go to an islamic country and begin advocating for more tolerance of other opinons. Go ahead. Do it.
It;s clear Foxman's objection to Cordoba was not based on anti-Muslim sentiment. Too bad that's too complicated for you to understand.
In other words: I’d rather struggle on with this, my own debilitating affliction. Than be cured under circumstances I didn’t choose?
“Are you willing to talk about that? He was."
Then pick up thy bedevilment, and lets dance.
"Several groups with extreme anti-Muslim agendas have launched public campaigns that have both sheltered and fueled this bigotry."
The “through a glass darkly” mirror image. Of those causing problems, on either side of a manufactured divide.
It's clear to the author Foxman's problem was not based on anti-Islam sentiments.
Too bad that's too complicated for most HP readers to understand.
http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf
95% of articles I read that are written by muslim-Americans bash America. I honestly can't remember the last article I read by a muslim that had positive things to say about America.
Basically, if your allegience is to your religion first, and you don't want to assimilate, and you constantly bash America, then, yeah, most Americans aren't going to like you. What's the problem ?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-4943948-503544.html
At this point, they are simply doing damage control.
I'm sure you told anyone who objected to it to screw off, it's protected by the 1st amendment just as the choice of the site of the Islamic Center is, right?