Recently I was at a basketball camp at HAX Gym in L.A. I happened to notice two little kids, middle school age, practicing on the court next to me. They were putting each other through drills, encouraging each other when one of them missed a shot, or mishandled the ball, or messed up in the drill. They were having a great time. After I finished my workout, my trainer Laron Profit wanted to put me through a series of sprints. I asked the little boys if they wanted to run with me and they enthusiastically agreed. Eyes wide, and full of youthful exuberance, while I was dragging and honestly dreading doing these sprints. Well, we did the sprints and afterwards, they sat around talking with me for a little while, asking me question after question. They asked if I thought the Lakers were going to win again, how good did I think Miami was going to be, who was the toughest to guard, and about five different Kobe Bryant questions. So i started asking them questions about themselves. They told me their names were Steve* and C.J.* (*changed to protect their privacy), they were in middle school and they were best friends. In fact, they emphasized that they were so close that they might as well have been brothers. They told me that they wanted to attend Mira Costa High School together and that they were always going to be best friends forever. After we finished talking, they went back to their drills, and I just watched them encouraging each other and giving each other high fives when one of them scored. It was really a beautiful sight. Oh, I didn't mention that one was Arabic the other was Jewish.
It was really a beautiful sight watching these little kids from completely different backgrounds who didn't see race or at all. I really had never seen that, besides at a Seeds Of Peace Camp where Israeli and Palestinian kids are forced to play together -- but this was different. These kids kept describing themselves as brothers. But I wondered how long these kids will be able to exist in their happiness before society messes up their thinking? Before society makes them aware of issues that couldn't be further from their young minds. In essence, before society ruins them.
Later that day, I read a story where a swastika was actually painted on a mural of the first Israeli-born player in the NBA Omri Casspi (now twice defaced). This didn't happen in Germany, or back in the 50s, this was in downtown Sacramento in 2010. It is unbelievable that acts of hate such as this could happen in this day and age.
I remember after 9/11 there were multiple hate crimes against Muslims and anyone who was perceived as being Muslim as if they are all in agreement with the hijackers in 9/11. Within a few days of the attacks there was an abundance of events.
A Sikh owner of a gas station in Arizona was killed as was a Lebanese clerk at another station. Close to Dallas, Texas, a man murdered a Pakistani man who owned a small grocery store. In Cleveland, Ohio, a man used his Ford Mustang as a weapon and plunged into an Islamic Center. Event after event like these were occurring. Senseless killings and terror. After a while, the hate crimes slowed down, but recently this new crave called Islamaphobia began to bring acts of hate back.
A New York taxi driver Ahmed Sharif was attacked by a passenger after being questioned if he was a Muslim. He was actually stabbed multiple times, slashed across his face, neck and hands.
Islamaphobia was sweeping across the nation. It was making what should have been a time to remember the people who lost their lives during 9/11, into a hate-filled, politicized, discriminatory extravaganza. This was all prompted by the proposed building of a Muslim community center, that has a mosque on one of the floors, near the site of Ground Zero. Not on top of it, but a few blocks away. A recent poll stated that 70% of the country wants this community center built somewhere else. In fact, Donald Trump even offered to buy the Imam who was planning to build the community center out. That made me think of the "welcoming committee" who wanted to buy out the black family in A Raisin In The Sun when they wanted to move into the all-white neighborhood.
There have also been protests and hate-filled rhetoric spewed from the mouths of many political figures across party lines. Unfortunately, that discrimination turns out to be what brings about the non-partisanship that President Obama has been so desperately trying to achieve. A recent poll showed that 54 percent of Democrats were also opposed to the community center being built. Muslims in general have been treated like the enemy across party lines.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said: "We can't let the Nazis put up a building next to the Holocaust Museum."
Rudy Giuliani called the community center a "desecration."
Democratic Rep. John Hall, a two-term incumbent, released in a statement that freedom of religion was essential to democracy but that he hoped the project would be constructed elsewhere.
Democratic Rep. Mike McMahon also said that he hoped it would be moved:
I believe a new location is the right compromise so that Muslim Americans can worship without eliciting feelings that push us away from our country's basic tenet of religious acceptance while the families of 9/11 victims obtain the peace of mind they deserve.
Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), launched a "Campaign Offensive: Stop the 911 Mosque!" (SIOA 's associate director is Robert Spencer, who makes his living writing and speaking about the evils of Islam. SIOA called the community center, the "911 monster mosque."
Republican New York Congressman Peter King, stated:
... move the mosque to another location similar to what the Carmelite nuns did at Auschwitz when the Pope intervened and didn't question the right to have the convent there, but said it was very, very insensitive to the Jews who lost so many millions of people in the Holocaust.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), a potential presidential candidate:
I'm strongly opposed to the idea of putting a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero -- I think it's inappropriate. I believe that 3,000 of our fellow innocent citizens were killed in that area, and some ways from a patriotic standpoint, it's hallowed ground, it's sacred ground, and we should respect that. We shouldn't have images or activities that degrade or disrespect that in any way.
Florida Pastor, Terry Jones, who has received way too much attention in my opinion, actually threatened to burn copies of the Quran on 9/11. What has happened to our society?
After hearing all of this, I thought to myself, do these proponents of this community center and anyone else who agrees with them not understand that not all Muslims are with al Qaeda?
Do they understand that many Muslims (around five dozen) also lost their Muslim family members at Ground Zero? Furthermore, there are more than 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Does it make any sense to discriminate against all of them for the actions of 19? Or as Michael Moore recently asked in his open letter in favor of the community center being built:
"Blaming a whole group for the actions of just one of that group is anti-American. Timothy was Catholic. Should Oklahoma City prohibit the building of a Catholic Church near the site of the former federal building that McVeigh blew up?"
Of course everyone has the right to protest, don't get me wrong. Even the Klu Klux Klan has a constitutional right to assemble, march, protest and have rallies of hate. But what message are we sending the world? That it's OK to blame an entire religion, culture or nationality for the actions of a few? That discrimination is acceptable as long as we can come up with a justification? That someone's religion should dictate how they are treated? I think Mayor Bloomberg said it best:
The Community Center can and must be built at the Park51 site... Anything less would compromise our commitment to fighting terror with freedom... If we do not practice what we preach abroad- if we do not lead by example -- we undermine our soldiers -- we undermine our foreign policy objectives and we undermine our national security.
Looking at all of this I thought back to Steve and C.J. Two innocent kids, from completely different backgrounds. Playing a game that can unite races, cultures, nationalities and religions. Best friends. They didn't enter this world hating those who are different -- they appear to be completely color blind. They kept describing each other as brothers. Racism is a learned trait, and these two appear to be completely oblivious to it. But the question is how long will it be before society takes their innocence away from them.
Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie: Auschwitz and the Mosque Near Ground Zero: The Problems with This Analogy
But your comparison of 2 kids playing is far from the Ground Zero mosque. I agree with your view that, "radicalism is a learned behavior". So if you teach one of those 2 kids, to intimidate others or to hate others, then he will grow as a radical...
Ground zero mosques are not built by kids.......the people behind the mosques are adults and "learned ones" , and they very well know the "relevance of this site"
Americans have the right to look in to the history of Islam, life in the islamic countries and the way Muslims react to the terrorists.......yes, you are right, there is Islamophobia. Phobia is FEAR. It is for the Muslims to prove that there is no need of fear.
They can show the highly talked about "Tolerance & Peace" of Islam, by respecting the American sensitivity. The more the Imam resists, the more they will be exposed.
I think the Americans may not have a problem, if this center will work for reforms in Islam.....In fact such a center will send a real message to the terrorists, that the American Muslims are fighting against the concept of terrorism. On the other hand, a mosque will reinforce the ideology of terrorists.
There are many posters on these boards (yourself included, though youre certainly not the worst offender) who equate the mildest criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, Posters like Messy, BubbaC33, Aziat and Inoku cant start their day without accusing at least 5 posters of anti-Semitism by breakfast.
Depends how you understand the term I suppose. I dont think it should be diluted so readily for political purposes. It loses all value and is poisonous. Militant Zionists obviously disagree.
Oh wait, you're probably ok with that sort of hate, huh?
That is why you don't hear massive outcries defending the Jews. We no longer need it as much.
Why do you need to falsify? American Muslims have spoken out against terrorism and the extremists even before 9/11. So too have other Muslims in other parts of the world. For that very reason, many of them have been killed or terrorized into fleeing their homes and going into hiding. You may and will conclude whatever suits your bias, but don't try to pass off falsehood as legitimate or truth.
You say "Whether that's true or not, during these anxious times, people are thinking that way." Why don't you try using the same yardstick by which you would wish to be measured? Before you spread the word, check if it is true or false. People will be persuaded by your words as you spread false news posing as truth.
For the good of our country, please return to honesty to reclaim our integrity.
EVERY SINGLE MUSLIM ORGANIZATION has issued press releases, has organized conference, has spoken in the media against terrorism. And you SERIOUSLY tell me there's a relative silence?
Please, don't blame Muslims for your willful deafness and blindness.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-eteraz/the-myth-of-muslim-condem_b_67904.html
http://notesfromamedinah.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/the-myth-of-the-silent-muslim-majority/
Or, we could look forward and try to do something better today and tomorrow that we did yesterday. THAT is what I consider progress. We all know that no one has clean hands. Do we want to dwell in hate and hostility forever or try to grow the peace and love?
Some people say that creating this hate and fear is about distracting America from its real enemies.
The flip side is that there also are some of the poorer folk appear to me to need someone to hate. Hate seems to help them organize their reality. I see that, but I'll never understand it.
I'm glad you were there for the two boys. I'm sorry you aren't able to be there for all the ignorance that has poisoned the well of public discourse. I remember the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. A Muslim man worked with me (he was from Iran), and he would come in on days when he had received a package from home. He always offered me some. Tasting the goat cheese in the recipe of his area of Iran, was quite an experience. I didn't like everything he ever offered me, but I at least tried some. When I hear the hate that has poisoned America, I think about gentle Hassan, and somehow I think that we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, by our treatment of the world wide Muslim community in the wake of the 9/11 bom--bings.
I've personally lived in a muslim theocracy (saudi arabia) and people there are just like people here. Where there are very kind, considerate people, there are also the dumb brasses that will spoil something for everyone.
people will inherently get along, just talk to a person in a headscarf or someone that looks 'exotic' to what you're used to seeing and you'll see they're just regular people like yourself.
people spend way too much energy hating other people. if people tried to get along instead of divide people imagine what could be done.
Build it. Park 51 is not a monument to the highjackers (even though Newt says so). I agree with Mayor Bloomberg, it must be built there or bin Laden wins.
Appartently, all 1.5 billion MuZlims got together in Mecca secretly and planned an attack. The attack was carried out by ALL 1.5 billion MuZlims, including "terror babies" on September 11, 2001.
There are a lot of people here who believe the above!
Please stop leaking away our top-secret plans. We don't want the Crusaders to wise up.
Not every Muslim is a card-carrying member of Al Qaeda, but Al Qaeda isn't just some wacky fringe organization. It enjoys widespread support in the Muslim world because the majority of Muslims agree with Al Qaeda's goals, though not with their methods:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/feb09/STARTII_Feb09_rpt.pdf
very few people can read and write anymore - cept for us old farts.
I only feel old when I try to keep up with kids half my age (where did the time go?).
I assume you're trying to get them off your lawn?
The fact it needs to be said is sad. This is still America, right? The home of the brave, the land of the free?
How brave is it to paint a swastika across the likeness of a young Israeli basketball player? Not brave at all and I hope the police in Sacramento catch the waste of skin who did it.