After receiving a widely circulated, vociferous and hate-filled recording by Pat Condell, a British commentator, I felt compelled to share my own thoughts, which follow:
It is clear that many people commenting on the proposed Islamic center in New York City are grossly misinformed and acting from revenge, hatred and the same intolerance they point out in others. Calling this a "mosque" (the Center will have a prayer room) is like calling Mt. Sinai Hospital a synagogue because it has a chapel. I hope anyone who listened to the Condell diatribe will take time to review a few intelligent commentaries on the subject rather than the hate-mongering tirades of this man.
First, his shallow comment, rife with inaccuracies about the name "Cordoba", has been more accurately studied by far more intelligent scholars. Here's one:http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2010/08/professor-newts-distorted-history.html
Second, the front page of the last Sunday's New York Times featured a lengthy story on the subject, from which this very salient point is taken:
"......there is now widespread debate about whether the best way to uphold America's democratic values is to allow Muslims the same religious freedom enjoyed by other Americans, or to pull away the welcome mat from a faith seen as a singular threat......"
The entire article is here:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mosque.html?_r=1&hp
Sadly, many of my Jewish friends in particular seem to have a short memory about religious intolerance, with the possible exception of Mayor Bloomberg and others who recognize that this is not about the "triumph of terrorists" but more about "real American values of free speech and an opportunity for reconciliation."
The real problem here may not be Islam alone, or the Jewish response or even Christian theology or Biblical teachings; the overriding issue may be religion itself, and in particular fundamentalist ideologies of any cloth -- the "my God is better than your God" arrogance that prohibits dialogue in the name of absolute truth. How sad it has come to that.
When -- and where -- will we create an opportunity for a peaceful world if not in our own hearts first? The immediate issue here is only location: Americans have long demonstrated their support of religious freedom as much as any country in the West, but sadly the choice to build this center so close to the site of the World Trade Center has pushed a lot of buttons. Let's come up with reasonable, acceptable alternatives as commentary rather than defaming an entire culture. The world is full of ground zeroes where people have lost their lives.
I recently received a thoughtful letter from a student and friend, Anya Cordell, winner of the 2010 Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Citizen Award. Her courageous work following the World Trade Center disaster more than qualifies her to weigh in on the controversy surrounding the proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero. I share it here for HuffPo readers, with thanks to Anya for her work and efforts.
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In relation to your work on trauma, I've been wondering about your response to the multiple traumas related to 9/11 and lower Manhattan; the victims on the planes and on the ground, the rescue workers, the witnesses on the scene and watching on screens (all of us), and Muslims the world over who became instantly associated with something as horrifying and destructive as this event. As you know, I received the 2010 Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Citizen Award from The Anne Frank Center USA (in lower Manhattan ) for my work against the designating of any group as "Other." At this time of controversy surrounding the Islamic Cultural Center in New York, I thought I'd share my reflections with you and your audience.
When I think about the issue of "sacred ground" at the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York, and what should occur on or around it, I think about the innumerable "ground zeroes" around the world, where loved ones of families we never hear of have died in unspeakable violence. I think about what monuments or markers do, or do not, exist to commemorate where they fell or burned or disintegrated. Despite the unspeakable trauma in New York, it strikes me as quite a luxury to be able to memorialize and sanctify such ground, a luxury afforded to only a very few grieving families, the world over.
What we call New York 's "ground zero" was prime real estate in the world's most powerful country, with gleaming, tall, expensive buildings which were destroyed in a horrifically cruel and shocking way. This certainly calls us to respond in an appropriate fashion, and it is hard to argue with any grieving, traumatized person whose loved one disappeared that day; however, I'm quite certain that most scenes of bombings, explosions, terrorism, hate crimes and wars, throughout the world, are fairly quickly reclaimed by the exigencies of daily life, the need to rebuild and to make a living, and by life moving forward, even in the face of unspeakable tragedy.
After September 11, a number of innocent men, not just Muslim or Arab, but also Sikh, Hindu, South Asian, and others, were murdered in the U.S. by self-avowed 'patriot' vigilantes. I know the families of some of these victims. The widow of one works every day standing exactly where her husband was shot in cold blood, behind the counter of the service station he ran. There is no hushed and sacred ground there, except for an instant when momentary wisps of incense her father lights in the doorway each day fade away, just before the customers tramp through to pay for their gas, cigarettes, lottery tickets and sodas. Customers do remember and speak of the murdered man who was the soul of generosity -- a U.S. citizen who was Hindu, from India, who would let you drive away with a tank of gas and the promise that you'd pay him back if you didn't have money in your wallet that day. I suppose their memory is his memorial. Similarly, a Sikh family works every day where their loved one was slain, in Mesa, Arizona on September 15, 2001 by a killer who had vowed to "kill the ragheads responsible for 9/11," and instead murdered a sweet man wearing a turban as a tenet of his Sikh faith.
There is no memorial at the intersection where I live, where a black neighbor, was gunned down by a white supremacist in 1999, although we did organize nightly walks from the site, which folks attended for months, sometimes accompanied by the victim's wife and children, two of whom witnessed their father's shooting. There is a slight imprint of a leaf in the cement curb where he fell, (I think the curb was set before the murder), a coincidence that feels to me a tiny bit meaningful.
These are my thoughts when I read of the families of some of those who died in lower Manhattan, wanting "ground zero" and its environs (how far?) to be hallowed in a way that only the most privileged nations can afford. Perfectly innocent people die daily as victims of what is referred to as "collateral damage" in dusty parts of the globe. Children disintegrate stumbling across minefields. All manner of mayhem and terrorism destroy lives, but somehow we imagine that those who were lucky enough to have lived and worked in New York apparently stand (figuratively, no longer literally) far apart from these multitudes of others, who were equally innocent, whose deaths were equally shocking, whose families loved them just as much and who also clawed at earth with bare hands trying desperately to rescue and recover them.
My further reflections on the controversy grow out of my work around what I call "appearance-ism" (appearance-based judging of ourselves and others), which I have tried so ardently to address.
Once a fashion and beauty obsessed girl, I grew to realize that fashionable attitudes can hold sway as much as, and far more destructively, than the dictates of frivolous clothing and makeup trends. The media which can teach us which body shapes, sizes and colors to value, can also train us to accept particular and sometimes very peculiar ideas. But just because something is repeated, or shouted, does not make it true. Propaganda, however, can and does take hold and has, throughout history, made some people very rich, powerful and destructive and has subjugated and decimated others.
Eventually, I realized that I did not want to be judged, or judge others, on the basis of appearance and stereotypes. Everyone is much more complex than any snap judgment we may make about them on the basis of appearance, age, ethnicity, religion, etc. I began to speak and write about appearance-ism, racism, stereotyping, teasing, bullying, and hate crimes. Everyone understands some aspect of the injustice of appearance-ism, and this common experience, I've discovered, can be a touchstone to help people appreciate the unfairness of all sorts of biases we have been taught.
After 9/11 I felt compelled to reach out to the innocent families I mentioned above, and in the years since, I've watched the anti-Muslim drumbeat intensify in ways that impact multitudes of innocent people. All the Muslims I know are traumatized by the stereotyping and characterizations that are now rampant. Rather than celebrating 9/11 (as they have been accused), they despair of it. All of them fear; children being taunted and bullied, adults being more vulnerable in public and in the workplace. They feel constant suspicion directed at them as they try to live their lives while absorbing the shame and blame being heaped on all Muslims, worldwide. They are between a rock and a hard place, damned for whatever they do or don't do. How many of those who yell about Muslims, I wonder, have ever met a Muslim, let alone had a Muslim guest in their living room, or set foot in a mosque or a Muslim person's home?
Following a presentation, a student once whispered to me, "Thank you so much for your program. I'm Muslim, but no one here knows it." That sent chills down my spine, reminding me of historic times when people needed to try to "pass" to be safe. As a Jewish woman, the moment made me think of Anne Frank, and the disparity between the Nazi stereotypes of Jews, and the reality of the innocents who were slaughtered. It also made me think of the heroic non-Jewish friends who supported Anne's family in hiding, and the necessity of crossing divides to be allies for one another.
Like all who commit such atrocities, the savage people who demolished the towers had no idea whatsoever about the people they destroyed. They didn't care to know anything about them. They accepted sweeping generalizations, thus dismissing them entirely.
How, then, does making blanket statements about an enormous, extraordinarily diverse group -- Muslims -- serve as a contradiction to all the individual family tragedies that were engendered by the 9/11 attacks? Isn't the most appropriate way to stand against wanton, wholesale destruction of broad categories of people, to not engage in categorizing groups at large; to not listen to smears, to fight against demagoguery, to go out of our way to get to know as many individuals as possible, to be thoughtful, reasonable, patient and careful in our thinking about one another?
I would trust my Muslim and Hindu and Sikh friends with my life. I'm sure there are some Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Christians and others who might terrify me. In my experience there are wonderful people of all faiths, who claim their religion has taught them their values, and awful people of all faiths who also claim their religion has taught them their values. I am much more interested in meeting people than in labeling them.
People build their houses of worship, schools and community centers and create all manner of organizations, and it is all very messy and complicated. I am certain that if we could have interviewed, in depth, every person who died a victim at 9/11's "ground zero," we would be left with an equally complicated collection of beliefs, worldviews and value systems, which we cannot possibly honor, by making wholesale decrees about a faith adhered to by one fifth of the people on this planet.
Anya Cordell, Author, RACE: An OPEN & SHUT Case
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With thanks to Anya, I still cannot help wonder what part of "Love Thy Neighbor Like Thyself" is so difficult to understand. I invite readers of this post to reach out to Anya directly, or through your thoughtful comments here. May all who suffer find peace within.
William
http://www.fortunateblessings.org
Dean Obeidallah: Why Building the Mosque is Good for America!
Where can the Muslim community center be built in NYC? I say you can build it here or there, by a house or a mouse, in Tribeca by Robert DeNiro or further down by Ground Zero. It's that simple.
As an eighth-generation rabbi whose father came to this country in 1938 to escape religious persecution, I applaud and am inspired by President Obama's remarks in support of the Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan.
NY Senate Tea Party Candidate: Ground Zero Mosque "Hot Bed For Trouble"
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Liz Cheney breaks with Bush admin over Imam behind "Ground Zero mosque"
Ground Zero Mosque Controversy: Join the Live Chat
Unneeded Bureaucracy at Ground Zero
Video: Jon Stewart gives his take on the 'Ground Zero mosque'
"The immediate issue here is location: Americans have long demonstrated their support of religious freedom as much as any country in the West, but sadly the choice to build this center so close to the site of the World Trade Center has pushed a lot of buttons. Let's come up with reasonable, acceptable alternatives as commentary rather than defaming an entire culture. The world is full of ground zeroes where people have lost their lives."
Now that the developers are wisely considering a different location for the center, we will quickly learn whether people are willing to defend any religion's rights or are simply anti-Islam. Let's hope that the location DOES move and as a result, shift the focus on this discourse, too.
As a former New Yorker I think Muslims need to be a bit considerate of how their neighbors feel about this issue. After all, Muslims destroyed the Twin Towers and are waging religious Jihad's all around the world.
Their purchase is Legal, they can Legally put up a mosque there ... but it's not the right thing to do for Muslims nor American's.
The six (or five, I'm sorry, I can't remember) little Black girls who were killed in the 60's, by a church bombing. THAT is truly a ground zero, to say nothing of the hundreds of lynchings.
Outside Laramie, WY is ground zero for the Matthew Sheppards, tortured and killed for being gay.
I lost co-workers on 9/11 and the magnitude of that attack was all the more horrid as the buildings fell and we watched, riveted to our TV's. Those death's in no manner lessen other deaths by zealots, warped minds that just hate "them".
Once the events of 9-11 were allowed to go nearly completely uninvestigated and the American people took as gospel the explanation of what happend that day from a group of people in "authority" that in other areas/situations were proven liars, this country was shown to be morally and spiritually half dead already.
The almost chilling "anything goes," blind obediance to authority attitude displayed by the American people between 2002 - 2004 was a clear sign from those who have real power in this country that they can do and get away with anything they want to. And they will.
1) Follow the advice of the authors of this piece and pretend that significant differences between groups do not exist. Pretend that if we are just nicer to each other, the problems we have will resolve. This choice guarantees that the train wreck that is approaching will happen.
1) Forthrightly admit that competing, incompatible ideologies exist that generate deadly conflicts and sometimes the only outcome possible is that one ideology will win, the other lose. This approach does not guarantee a bloodless resolution. But we resolved the conflict between communism and capitalism without a world-wide war and South Africans did the same. The first step is to identify the two conflicting ideologies.
I think American Muslims can assume leadership in reinterpreting Islam to adhere to modern democratic values. Just like Christianity and Judaism constantly adapts to a changing environment, Islam does as well. I think its important for Americans to support moderates that are internally debating positive change within Islam, lets begin with ending the this silliness over a mosque.
Without resistance to traditional Islam, nothing will change. If we do not resist traditional Islam-- now called Islamism, Salafism, etc.--Reform Islam will never be born.
I agree that Muslims are debating internally and something good will come of that debate, if the Islamists do not kill off all the potential reformers--as has happened in the Middle East.
That is one reason why we need a definition of an Islamic reformer. Imam Rauf is no reformer.
If I remember your earlier posts, you are against the mosque. Or does "silliness" indicate the opposite?
They are symbolized in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam.
Presently, both sides are playing the victim and denying responsibility. A frank statement of differences is needed to start the process of talking ourselves out of WWIII.
What to do with the Book?
Peace, Salaams,Shalom
"The Mohammadan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within." - Will Durant
The world is now fighting the barbarians from multiplying from within.
very good question - what you have them do?
http://www.niot.org/blog/islamic-center-controversy-niot-shares-stories-interfaith-action