This September 11th the news is filled with discussions about a proposed Muslim community center near the former site of the World Trade Center and about a previously unknown Florida pastor who has a congregation that can fit inside one subway car. Lost in the media are the reminders of the tragic loss of lives, the fear that was pervasive throughout America, the resulting lives lost or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fact that America's security isn't significantly better than it was 9 years ago.
Concerning the pastor (I will leave him unnamed), the media has succeeded at making a national figure out of someone whose goal was to be famous. I suspect that this pastor will soon follow-up with a TV deal, talk-radio, politics and/or a major book deal though I hope he returns to obscurity.
Concerning the community center, it reminds some people of the dance club that was opened inside an old tannery building in Auschwitz. While those dancing the night away in Poland are presumed to have nothing to do with the slaughter of over 1 million people, the dance club felt wrong. Their partying wasn't going to impact those that were already dead but it diminished those lost lives. While those who seek to build a Muslim community center are presumed to have nothing to do with the extremists that destroyed thousands of lives, for many it feels wrong. It also feels wrong that there are strip clubs close to the World Trade Center site, souvenir shops near Pearl Harbor and tacky Lincoln statues next to Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was murdered. Regardless of how Americans feel about the construction of this community center, as long as we have a Constitution and we believe that this document drives America's rule of law and represents America's values, then construction of the community center should be allowed to continue. The memory of those lost will be preserved in the hearts of the living and in monuments that will long outlast the generation that lived through September 11th 2001.
I was living in Washington DC during the attacks and recall the damage to the Pentagon as well as the militarized feel of our nation's capital. Standing on the National Mall soon after the tragedy, I was struck by how quiet the center of our country's government seemed, with no planes flying overhead and no tourists. In the years since that attack we have seen high profile, amateurish, terrorist attempts in the US like the shoe bomber or the recent Times Square car bombing attempt. No doubt there have been more sophisticated attacks thwarted by our government.
Having lived and traveled in societies that were closed, where movement was highly restricted and where I had to lock myself inside for safety every day, I treasure that America remains an open and free society. I love the fact that Americans and visitors can move within our vast territory without restrictions while generally feeling secure. Our freedoms keep us very vulnerable to further attacks. Our borders are porous, our airport security inconsistent, our port security virtually non-existent, our movements within the country generally untracked while guns and other weapons are easy to obtain.
There will be more terrorist attacks on American soil in the future and some will succeed. This is the world that we live in. As for New York, around the World Trade Center site, buildings will be built and knocked down, businesses will be started and shuttered, babies will be born and people will die and New York will continue to thrive in its ever-changing fashion.
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Pastor Terry Jones, meanwhile, clearly was seeking his 15+ minutes of fame by exploiting these xenophobic fears as he continually changed his rationale with the time of day to justify a Koran-burning plan. I'm relieved if he finally resolved against the idea, but the fact that he threatened this desecration in the first instance is inexcusably disturbing and an unfortunate sign of the times.
The Park51 project may be many things, but it certainly cannot be compared to the nightclub at Auschwitz. Even softening the comparison by attributing it to "some people" does not alter the fact the two situations are worlds apart. And merely giving voice to such an "apples and oranges" perception perpetuates the same untruths that have created a shameful "controversy" and given rise to some truly un-American behavior.
Sadly, in the nine years since 9/11, too many Right-wing agitators (most of them non-New Yorkers) have been allowed to color the narrative of that day, convincing themselves and their followers that only "good, White, Christian Americans" perished on that fateful morning, victims of a sinister Islamic philosophy that lurks just beneath the outward veneer of EVERY Muslim.
Instead of remembering that the WTC fallen really WERE a global variety of races, religions, and nationalities, these shrill voices of intolerance attempt to cloud the truth and manipulate the significance and symbolism of 9/11 for their own revisionist purposes.
What should be built at Ground Zero is something which truly honors America's greatest strength and ideal - its embrace of diversity. It would have been far more fitting to build a small mosque directly on the site, side by side with a small synagogue and church, in a beautiful park. A place for quiet reflection and prayer - not to mention tolerance and brotherhood.
Perhaps then, it would truly be "sacred ground."
Concerning the mosque, synagogue and church idea I think it is nice in theory but in practice where is the line drawn? If it is meant to represent religious unity then shouldn’t it include Hindu, Buddhism, Sikhism, Wicca and another other major religion or belief system.