The following letter is from a group of concerned Jews, connected by their community, responding to the Anti-Defamation League's Statement on the Islamic Community Center Near Ground Zero.
Dear Mr. Foxman,
Last week the New York Times reported on the Anti-Defamation League's decision to oppose the building of the Islamic Community Center, the Cordoba House, near Ground Zero. You were quoted comparing the anguish of the 9/11 victims' families to that of Holocaust survivors and their relatives. "Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted," you said.
We can relate to these "irrational" feelings. We are a diverse group of Jews, many of us from New York. Many of our families lost members to the Holocaust. Some of us are lucky enough to still be able to spend time with parents, grandparents, uncles or aunts who made it through the Nazi death camps. We remember how uneasy many Jews felt about the Christian crosses placed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a situation with many parallels to that of the Cordoba House.
And yet we believe that your position on the Cordoba House is wrong and that it goes against the ADL's description of itself as an organization that fights "all forms of bigotry."
Cordoba House is not a mosque, it is an Islamic Community Center, similar to a Jewish Community Center, with a board comprised of members of different faiths. The center is not "at" Ground Zero, as certain politicians looking to exploit this divisive situation have stated. It is well-documented that the Cordoba initiative and its head, Imam Faisal Abdul Raouf, have done much to promote tolerance and interfaith relations. This, we feel, is something to celebrate. Seeking transparency from it is fine and right, but saying, as the ADL does, that "questions have been raised" about its sources of funding or its ideology is a form of scaremongering that obscures the issue. We should welcome a Muslim leader who has worked hard to overcome hatred.
There are other reasons not to oppose the project. We agree with you that some victims of 9/11 are entitled to "irrational" feelings as a result of their loss. But being less tolerant will not help us heal, and it is not wise for America to alienate millions of its own citizens, let alone the hundreds of millions of Muslims in countries that Americans visit around the world. Remember, there were Muslim victims on 9/11, too, Muslims that worked in the World Trade Center, or were part of the rescue crews that bravely entered the buildings that day.
Previously, the ADL has won respect for its historical defense of the freedoms of others, and helped make more widely known the Jewish commitment to tikkun olam. We fear that your position on the Cordoba House project will tarnish that reputation.
This issue is emotional and complex. No matter what happens with the Cordoba House now, feelings are going to be hurt. But a fundamental principle of tolerance is at stake -- one we look to the ADL to uphold. Tolerance for one means tolerance for all, or else we slip down a dangerous slope.
We urge the ADL to change its position, and we urge everyone who agrees with us to sign the online petition that was started by J Street.
Endorsed by,
Sandi DuBowski, filmmaker
Eli Pariser, organizer
Nicola Behrman, writer
Robert Russell, artist
Francine Hermelin, author/entrepreneur & resident of Lower Manhattan
Julie Hermelin, filmmaker
Tarah Malhotra Feinberg, creative director
Elisha Levin, publicist
Douglas Rushkoff, author
Maya Benton, art curator
Jen Cohen, cantor
Ethan Sandler, writer/performer/producer
Rabbi David Adelson, East End Temple, New York
Michaela Watkins, performer/writer (and cousin of WTC victim)
Rachel Sklar, writer/social entrepreneur
Scott Belsky, author, entrepreneur
Adi Cohen, human rights activist
Mark Hanis, human rights activist
Kristopher Brown, attorney
Simon Glickman, writer/editor
Charles London, author
Juliet Simmons, creative director
Gideon Lichfield, journalist
Molly Rosen, writer
Stephen Elliott, author
Scott Goodstein, writer & activist
Rebecca Goldfarb, artist
Adam Werbach, environmental activist
Stacy Horne, producer
Davy Rothbart, writer/filmmaker
Jessica Tully, artist
Alan Light, writer/editor
Alana Klein, law professor
Adam Dorn, musician
Ari Wallach, social agenda strategist
Gillian Laub, photographer
Rachel Weinstein, activist and educator
Aaron Davidman, playwright
Audra Lehman, M.D.
William Wimsatt, social entrepreneur
Jeremy Goldberg, digital media entrepreneur
Joanna Rudnick, documentary filmmaker
Justin Ruben, organizer
Mireille Silcoff, writer/editor
Jeremiah Lockwood, musician
Amichai Lau-Lavie, rabbi
Ilyse Hogue, organizer
Josh Kun, professor
Josh Spear, digital strategist
Joshuah Bearman, writer
Eric Heiman, Design professor, writer
Jason Turbow, author/journalist
Zach Arrick, banker
Alan Light, writer/editor
Eugene Mirman, comedian
Cross-posted from www.jewcy.com.
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Born black, in the south, in the 60's, I can tell you that I have been privy to my share of 9/11's and 8/11's and 5,6, & 7/11's (just pick a month) - all orchestrated by Christians who read the bible a bit differently (and more often) than most. But, although you cannot burn a crucifix in my yard and although I do not practice a religion - you can still build a church next to my house. I would recognize that the crucifix on the door of the church and the one that is burned to intimidate are completely unrelated. If I could not make that distinction, the problem would be with me.
For shame.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/26/muslim-americans-right-worship/
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/02/texas-mosque-vandalized/
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/29/right-anti-islamic-bus/
Yea, its about not wanting Islam in a certain location. Hypocrite.
" mean would you people be this outraged if the Japanese were denied the opportunity to build a monument that is dedicated to Kamakzi Pilots near Pearl Harbor?"
That is your foolish view. We are not building a shrine to the terrorist you fool. You, contrary to your claim, are completely Islamophobic.
Have you even question or even rationalized why the center has even be built there or better yet if there is such an out-cry against the center being built by Ground Zero why doesn't the imam behind this construction move the center somewhere else in New York?
You might disagree with the example I gave but whether (hypotheically) the Japanese did construct some sort of monument near Pearl Harbor why people would be appauled by it. It's the same reason behind this scenario.
I don't know if you are a New Yorker or not. If you are not and you ever get an opportunity to come here, please check out the hole where the Twin Towers once stood. Maybe then you'll get a better perspective on why this is an emotional issue and why people need to be sensitive to other peoples wishes and not trying to distort the true topic at hand. Trust me, New York is a very tolerate place, made up of people with different religions and cultures. In fact we have many mosques here and no one has a problem with it, just like we wouldn't have a problem with this center being built just somewhere else, away from GZ.
peace, salaams, shalom
Basically opponents were saying that no mosque should be built in Manhattan. Obviously any argument that the government should stop one from being built would fail on First Amendment grounds.
Since the Holocaust, many Jews have felt that it was critical to stand together, because historically it has been so easy for those who hate us for no reason to take us down and beat the pulp out of us. Jews didn't feel that way in the early 1900's--they were just busy assimilating and paying no attention to their difference--and look what happened.
But lately I've been feeling less and less represented by the ADL, Israel, and others who seem firmly entrenched in fundamentalism and right-wing politics. They seem to be shriveling more and more into themselves and becoming ever more hateful and reactionary.
And lately I've been wondering if a deep schism is developing in the Jewish world today, between those right-wingers and all the others.
Do the right-wingers really think they can survive all on their own?
I guess most right-wingers do.
I think that is where we are now, and frankly, I think it is a healthy and a good place to be. The freedom to be fearless in expressing your individuality, the freedom to be a human being first and foremost, and NOT to be lumped into a group and persecuted or elevated (as the case has been with various groups in history) simply because of a single shared characteristic, is a fundamental human right.
The right wing in the US (GOP) as well as in Israel (Likud) work against this individual humanity and they know that fear is the best way to corral people into a herd and create herd mentality. This way they can force us to compromise our values and principles for the supposed "common good".
We are individual human beings, with brains, hearts and minds. We are not willing to compromise our integrity and our values, apply double standards, or divide the world into "us" and "them" when we know only the opposite will bring peace.
There were entire families incarcerated in Detroit. Series of unlawful arrest.
In Arizona a shop of an Indian family was burned.
"On January 28, 2002, Dr. Raman Aziz al-Abi, a university professor, went to work. He was teaching a class to some 100 students when, suddenly, a group of men burst into the lecture hall, shackled the professor and whisked him away. Professor al-Abi's students said he pleaded with the men to let him speak to an attorney but they physically dragged him off. The men who took him away refused to answer any questions and Professor al-Abi disappeared. This isn't an abduction story from some distant land run by a tin pot dictator or a scene from a Hollywood thriller. This event took place right here in the United States. Professor al-Abi was a teacher at the University of Northwest Central Texas at South Pantego. He had lived in the United States for 27 years and had been accepted for citizenship just a week before. His naturalization ceremony was two weeks later."
Ok, there was panic and
He wants it to be located in Lower Manhattan, all of which could be claimed to be "near Ground Zero."
That's the whole problem. Too many of the most vocal opponents clearly want there to be no mosque anywhere.