If the media coverage is any indication, you would think that President Obama's biggest concern this 9/11 is where he will be photographed, not what he, and the rest of us, must do to keep our nation from descending back into the darkness, fear, and hatred that consumed us in its immediate aftermath of that event. Based on the last several weeks, I'd say the president and the rest of us, have our work cut out for us but I believe enough in the greatness of this country that I don't think it's a lost cause.
It seemed as though our nation was finally beginning to heal from 9/11. After the immediate, intense pain that followed, the feelings of endless sadness and sorrow, and of not daring to openly celebrate any of life's milestones on that day (birthdays and anniversaries) in the first few years after, it seemed that our nation, was finally beginning to find some peace. Not beginning to forget, but beginning to move on.
But in recent months it's as though we've begun to journey backwards, not forward, and the wound now seems more open and painful than ever. The recent stories are almost too disturbing, and frankly embarrassing for our country, to recount, but I will anyway.
• On July 25th, a Gainseville, Florida "pastor" announced that he will host "International Burn a Koran Day" at his church to commemorate 9/11 this year, an act that General David Petraeus has said will make U.S. troops in Afghanistan less safe.
• An August 16th poll revealed that nearly a third of Americans believe Muslims should be barred from running for president or sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court.
• On August 24th, a cab driver was asked if he was a Muslim by a passenger, who upon receiving confirmation that he was, proceeded to stab the driver repeatedly. The driver has since been unable to work due to his injuries and has received very few contributions to aid with his medical expenses and lost wages.
• On August 25th, a drunken man burst into a mosque located in Queens, NY and urinated on prayer rugs there.
• On August 28th, a mosque being built in Tennessee was a target of arson.
• To address concerns regarding rising hate speech and crimes directed at Muslims, days ago the campaign "My Faith, My Voice" created a public service announcement featuring American Muslims making the case that they are real Americans who we don't have to fear. You can watch it here. (Perhaps I'm getting softer as I get older but I find it hard to watch it without becoming emotional that our fellow citizens felt compelled, by fear for their lives, to do this.)
I'm sure there are those who will argue that it is not that Americans are bigots or unwilling to move on, but that some of our countrymen are simply reacting to the insensitivity being displayed by those who don't understand what we lost on that day. To put it bluntly, they would argue that our collective wound was beginning to heal, until an unacceptable amount of salt was poured on it. First, when a guy named Hussein took over the White House, and second when he and his "elitist," non-patriotic buddies (including apparently GOP Senator Orrin Hatch) defended the right of a bunch of Osama look-alikes to build a religious center too close for comfort to Ground Zero. Despite much of the opposition hailing from outside of New York City, they would also likely argue that those of who share a different perspective simply don't understand what "they" and our country lost that day.
They would be wrong.
Let me say from the get go that I didn't lose anyone personally on 9/11 and have no right to compare my experience at all to those who did.
But I know I lost something personal. To this day, I still remain uncomfortable discussing my 9/11 story -- every New Yorker (and D.C.-er for that matter) on the ground that day has one -- and I continue to change the subject when curious friends and family from other states ask about it, just as I'm about to do with you right now.
But aside from that day I know it changed my life long after, just as it did so many Americans. For months I was terrified of the subway, so much so that my entire life was rearranged around never setting foot below ground. And as hard as this is for those of you who are familiar with me and my work now to likely believe, I stopped watching television altogether and reading most newspapers and magazines because I knew that I was just one terrifying, painful image away from falling apart emotionally, throwing in the towel and making my family happy by abandoning the Big Apple altogether and moving home "somewhere safe." (I'm sure there's some mental health professional reading this who's thinking that I should have seen someone about this and I'm sure you're probably right but I didn't.)
While I didn't lose anyone I loved that day, as a recent college grad working in constituent services in a congressional office on the Upper East Side, my work and my life revolved around trying to help those who did. From spouses who lost loved ones and were trying to navigate the complex benefits process, to those who needed help arranging alternate travel for family members to grieve their loss after all flights were grounded. (For anyone who's looking for a way to help his or her college age kid grow-up overnight, putting him or her in a job in which he or she is surrounded by people in that kind of pain is a surefire way to do it.)
This is all to say that I am someone who has strong feelings about 9/11 to this day. I am angry that those people hijacked those planes, and also hijacked our peace of mind. I am angry that they hijacked my peace of mind. And I am angry that to this day even though I am a rational human being in most aspects of my life that I still have a mild phobia about subways that has occasionally reared its ugly head in the form of panic attacks years later.
I am angry. But I am not angry with Muslims.
I am no more angry with Islam for that horrible attack than I am at Christianity for slavery. Yes some people used the Christian religion as a justification for enslaving my ancestors. But those people were idiots. Not every Christian is. Furthermore, if I am to call myself a Christian I must forgive those who hurt us (I'll be honest, this is the tenet of my faith I struggle most with as anyone who's wronged me or anyone I love knows.) But if I am to call myself a Christian I also must not persecute those who have not hurt us. (I'm getting the impression that the Glenn Beck's of the world did not get to that part of the Bible.)
I want this on the record. I do not, I repeat, I do not believe that every person who opposes the Cordoba House Center being located near Ground Zero is an Anti-Muslim bigot. I think many of them are simply still hurting and, for them, that building represents what the subway still does for me; a reminder of the pain, terror, hurt and loss from that day that still lingers, even though everyone else says that we should move on.
But, if that's the case, and you're reading this, then prove the critics calling you a bigot wrong by doing these three things:
1) Make a donation to Ahmed Sharif, the cab driver attacked in what is being described as an anti-Muslim hate crime. You can do this through the New York Taxi Workers Alliance
Checks and money orders can be made payable to, "Ahmed Sharif"
Mail to:
Ahmed Sharif
c/o New York Taxi Workers Alliance
250 Fifth Avenue, Suite 310
NY, NY 10001
2) If you are a listener or fan of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or anyone else who has been using heated rhetoric around this issue that can be perceived as Islamophobic, write to them and ask them to vehemently denounce the attack against Sharif and hate crimes against Muslims in general, as well as "International Burn a Koran Day." Contact: Glenn Beck: me@glennbeck.com, Rush Limbaugh: ElRushbo@eibnet.com
3) If you've ever sent an e-mail forward to your friends critical of Islam, which in any way may have been misconstrued as condoning hate crimes against those who practice this faith, then send an e-mail to those same friends today denouncing "International Burn a Koran Day" and hate crimes against Muslims, and encouraging them to donate to the Ahmed Sharif fund.
The reason? Because our country is better than the hatred and bigotry we are allowing to define us at the moment.
This piece originally appeared on TheLoop21.com for which Goff is a Political Blogger.
Follow Keli Goff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/keligoff
Clarence B. Jones: The 10th Anniversary of 9/11: A Unique Opportunity for Presidential Leadership
Christopher Brauchli: Muslims and Intolerance
The media celebrates the Muslims constitutional right to build a victory mosque near ground-zero even though it's insensitive to most Americans...
The media disapproves of a Christian's constitutional right to burn a Quran because it's insensitive to Muslims...
The media has ignored the insensitivity of Muslims burning bibles & crosses...
The media sure appears to be pro-Muslim & anti-Christian!
Sure, all religion has been responsible for some the the worst atrocities in the history. But let's not dismiss or condemn an action based on what "others" have done. It's "WHAT ABOUT...? " arguing which is evasive, captious and irrelevant.
Cordoba is a Nicaraguan coin, a city in Spain, a city in Argentina, and it was also a Chysler automobile built to claim victory over the Christians? Ever heard of the Christian Crusades? If yes, maybe you would understand those wars in the distant past were crimes committed to futher the power of unscupulous people. The same type of people are trying to do the same today. The Chistians have committed many atrocities against Muslims over the centuries who have also committed their own atrocities. Wake up people we are not in the middle ages.
Where do you live, Saude Arabia? In the US, we have laws guaranteeing religious freedoms. If anyone commits a crime, have them arrested. If your are looking to hate someone, hate those who reside among us pretending to be patriots, who by their actions will diminish our freedoms and inalienable rights. Love your country and respect all those who died throughout history to preserve our Constitutional rights; to forsake those who gave the full measure in the past, would now render their sacrifices meaningless, those people died for your's and everbodys freedoms.
1 This is a non issue, there is no legal leg to stand on in opposition to the Cordoba House.
2 People are trying to make political gain by keeping this alive.
3 Those who oppose the Mosque are the insensitive ones by conituing to twist the knife in all those wounds opened on 911.
This, as much as anything, is the worst of it. Politicians inciting ill-will and intolerance in one portion of their electorate against another portion of their electorate. The Muslims are American citizens too! As well, the politicians should be staying out of this totally rather than pretending and infering that they somehow have the power to change it when they absolutely do NOT unless they intend to rewrite the constitution! That is about as cheap and low as you can get. Not a surprise though. I shouldn't be so naive, my bad.
As religions go, it seems to me that Islam sucks. That does not make me a bigot either, it makes me a person who has come to a conclusion based on his own observations.
I have absolutely no reason to contribute anything to that project and I refuse to let anyone use guilt as a weapon to convince me to change my mind.
And I'm not completely ignorant about Islam, either: I've probably studied it more than you have, and I've probably had longer to watch the way it interacts with non-Islamic people and nations--which, for the record, is not impressive in the least and is often the epitome of intolerance, barbarism and a never-ending sense of victimization accompanied by eternal hatred. To the best of my ability my position is solid, rational and can be backed up in a number of ways. I have nothing to prove to you or anyone about that. And I'm not giving them one red cent--that is my personal choice which I am perfectly entitled to make.
Personal bigotry on my part has nothing to do with Pakistan not being my friend, or the fact that using kid gloves in Afghanistan has lost us the war, or Muslims who threaten to slaughter cartoonists and eradicate the Jews. Nothing in my posts ever referred to skin color or race at all--yet three times this week now I have been accused of being a bigot by do-gooders without a clue, based on their own wishful thinking and incorrect projections of my motives rather than on anything I actually said, thought, or believed.
So, though I do not feel I need to defend myself, I sometimes do feel the need to slap around the occasional idiot or hypocrite--because otherwise they'll think they're doing fine and are enlightened beings of some kind rather than just another variety of hypocrite.
And contrary to what you say, I believe you are actually quite ignorant about American Muslims but yes, you are absolutely free to dislike them.
You can not judge Islam by "American" Islam, which is quite a toned-down version of standard Islam because we have laws which prohibit much of what is done in Islam's name elsewhere, as well as only a very small minority of the population who are Muslim. I have no confidence at all that American Muslims would be so low-key if they made up 75% of the population because places where they do don't practice moderate Islam, are usually governed by Sharia law and are hateful and intolerant of all others. We are not seeing typical Islam here in America; I think it's more likely that we are seeing Muslims whose numbers are still to small to make a grab for power. If they were the majority I have no doubt that the tolerance they ask us for today would not be returned in kind.
While you inspect yourself for traces of bigotry, don't lose sight of the big picture.
Andrew McCarthy:
"We look around us and we see our country unrivaled by anything in the history of human tolerance. We see thousands of thriving mosques, permitted to operate freely even though we know for a fact that mosques have been used against us, repeatedly, to urge terrorism, recruit terrorists, raise money for terrorists, store and transfer firearms, and inflame Muslims against America and the West. [….]
So finally we're asking: Where is this "moderate Islam" you've been telling us about? Why would a self-proclaimed bridge-builder insist on something so patently provocative and divisive? How can we be sure that if imam Rauf builds his monument on our graveyard, it won't become what other purportedly "moderate" Islamic centers have become: a cauldron of anti-American vitriol?"
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245872/where-we-begin-say-no-andrew-c-mccarthy
Same place it's always been...low key, quiet when it should be speaking out, unwilling to face down the radicals and unable to stop them. If it represented a majority, we would expect to see tolerance increasing and radicalism and violence decreasing--that, of course, is not the case at all. This could easily lead one to the opinion that "moderate Islam" is in some ways an attempt to put lipstick on a pig while diverting attention from the eternal violence, hatred, persecution and extreme religious bigotry which characterizes so much of the Islamic world and can be seen on the news nightly.
That's what I hope for, anyway. The alternative is all out war.
I can discriminate between the two.
When I see that a major funder of the Lower Manhattan Islamic Cultural Center land purchase, Mr. Elzanaty, had to pay back over $300,000 in bad Medicare reimbursements and gave $6,000 to the now closed Holy land Foundation (closed as it was a front for Hamas), I have every right to wonder what this group is about....
That's ture. Some people just realize the inappropriateness of a center named after Islamic Jihadist coneqest in the West by a company named after Cordoba Caliphate-- Jihadist occupation in the West. The symbolysm of that next to a modern Jihadist attack in the heart of Western civilization is just wrong.
There is really no difference between 9/11 and Corboda, and I would argue that the symbolism is not only appropiate but completely justified.
Now you hit it on the nail. Thank you.
Doubtless this is why Mr. Rauf named his organization after the Cordoba Caliphate-- how beatifically Jews, Muslims and Christians can co-exist under the banner of benevolent Shariah Islam-- in the West..
Never mind that Cordoba Caliphate society was sharply segregated along ethnic and religious lines, with the Arab tribes at the top of the hierarchy (of course), then Berbers and Christian and Jewish Dhimmis at the bottom, as most oppressed members of society.
Never mind that the greatest Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages, Maimonides, had to escape from Cordoba caliphate due to pogroms and persecutions against Jews..... details...details.....
But what an exemplary model for contemporary America.
Quote from Imam Rauf:" What Muslims want is a judiciary that ensures that the laws are not in conflict with the Qur'an and the Hadith."
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2009/04/time_to_update_islamic_law.html
o11.0 NON-MUSLIM SUBJECTS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE (AHL AL-DHIMMA)
[…]
o11.5 Such non-Muslim subjects are obliged to comply with Islamic rules that pertain to the safety and indemnity of life, reputation, and property. In addition, they:
(1) Are penalized for committing adultery or theft, though not for drunkeness;
(2) Are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar);
(3) Are not greeted with “as-Salamu ‘alaykum”;
(4) Must keep to the side of the street;
(5) May not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed;
(6) Are forbidden to openly display wine or pork, (A: to ring church bells or display crosses,) recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays;
(7) And are forbidden to build new churches.
[…]
o11.10 The agreement is also violated [when the non-Muslim]
(1) Commits adultery with a Muslim woman or marries her;
(2) Conceals spies of hostile forces;
(3) Leads a Muslim away from Islam;
(4) Kills a Muslim;
(5) Or mentions something impermissible about Allah, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), or Islam.
o11.11 When a subject’s agreement with the state has been violated, the caliph chooses between the four alternatives mentioned above in connection with prisoners of war (o9.14).
[death, slavery, ransom or release]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/30/muslims-go-green-for-rama_n_699945.html
Devout Muslims around the world have observed the holy month of Ramadan, by fasting. It ends with the festival of Eid-Al-Fitr.
Eid-Al-Fitr in America is today, Thursday, September 9th. Greet them with these words: Eid Mubarak (Blessed Festival). Show them your support and make them feel that this is America, their home.
عيد مبارك
EID MUBARAK, MUSLIM FELLOWS OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD!
MAY YOU BE BLESSED WITH PEACE AND PROSPERITY.
And ask them to donate funds to the Cordoba Caliphate Center so it can moved to another location. Hopefully outside of Manhattan.
Muslims have AS much right as you and anyone else to build holy places in Manhattan. You don't like it? Then why don't you move out of Manhattan!
What I cannot understand, or believe for that matter, is that Mr. Sharif has been left out in the cold by his fellow believers! There are after all a 100 mosques in New York City. Where did you get your information from, regarding his financial condition? Your allegations regarding his financial condition really doesn't sound quite credible to me! If it is true, however, this bespeaks very poorly of the New York City Muslim community, when on the other hand, an incredible $100 million Mosque/Community Center is planned to be built, near the World Trade Center area!
Additionally, where is ANY support from the Islamist for a Christian church in any mid. east country ?? Try "reaching out with inter-faith opportunity" to muslims re: a Christian church near Mecca. See how that goes --ha !!!
This whole "inter-faith" wording is total B.S. in the muslim faith ---- they have NO ROOM for infidels ( christians, jews etc.) in their faith. So someone at CNN or MSNBC please take note of the COMPLETE lack of tolerence from the islam faith before you bash America & Christians.
“I want this on the record. I do not, I repeat, I do not believe that every person who opposes the Cordoba House Center being located near Ground Zero is an Anti-Muslim bigot. I think many of them are simply still hurting”
I do not think that anyone’s so called hurt empowers them to perpetuate crimes or practice a form of blanket intolerance which makes no distinction between hatred, bigotry and just hurt. Giving any support to these people to me is a kin to mainstreaming people who blow up busses in Tel aviv because of past wrongs inflicted by the state against their community.
I totally understand the hurt, but I denounce the actions taken. You are kind but misguided to caudle these people but supporting these people either individually or collectively is dangerous. A line must be drawn.
You're accusing your fellow Americans who oppose the mosque/cc CRIMINALS?
What CRIME has been perpetrated by the people who oppose the mosque/cc?
The fellow in Gainesville, Florida who calls himself a pastor is living proof of insanity and hate at work. He may, under the U.S. Constitution have a legal right to burn the Koran or other books but does he have a moral right, especially as a pastor or minister of God's word? I think not! I think this guy is a bozo with a lot of hate and stupidity driving his actions, and the really bad part is that the rest of this nation may have to pay for his actions in more blood spilling, more hatred, more senseless war and destruction. I think this issue has become one of national security... not the secrets of this nation but the security of the people to live in peace.
Think whatever you will I am NOT convinced the middle east had any part at all in the 911 attack. I believe the issue is far more a matter of domestic enemies at work rather than foreign enemies. But from that moment hate for no reason has been generated over and over until today it is completely out of hand and the living proof is in Gainesville.