Park 51 and America’s Unresolved Pain
by: Valerie Elverton-Dixon on August 19th, 2010 | 25 Comments »
People do harm out of their own pain. When we see people causing harm to other people, we ought to ask ourselves and ask them: “Who hurt you?” Sometimes the answer to that question is difficult to know. The answer to the question may be entangled in several different strands of personal, political and historical factors that are too complicated to disentangle. We are perplexed by a Gordian knot of our own psychological pain that cannot simply be undone by the stroke of a sharp sword and an indiscriminant mind.
Opposition to the Park 51 Community Center revolves around the sensibilities of people who lost loved one on September 11, 2001 and the sensibilities of a nation that suffered one of the most horrific attacks of its history. When someone we love dies, the world is never the same. Even if they die full of years with their family surrounding them with love and prayers, the pain is palpable. Even if we have a grave site to visit, their passing leaves a space that can only be filled with memory and hope. It is especially difficult when the someone that we love dies suddenly, violently, needlessly. It is difficult not to have a place to visit, a headstone to talk to, a stream of water, ocean, a green field, or beautiful landscape to visit and remember the moment we scattered the ashes. There is nothing that anyone can do or not do that will make the ache stop. And our tears have a will of their own.
The controversy over Park 51, captiously misnamed the Ground Zero Mosque leads us to ask the national question: “Who hurt us?” I say: A group of terrorist criminals hurt us, not Islam itself. (I have written about this in two blogs at the Washington Post On Faith blog and at God’s Politics.) Most people know with their rational minds that this nation was attacked by criminals whose actions were a desecration of Islam and all that is holy. Islam teaches that Allah is merciful and compassionate. He is all powerful. Logic tells the believer that an all powerful God does not need humankind to kill. Islam teaches that God wants us to compete as in a race toward all the virtues. Yet, when we seek an answer to the question of who hurt us, we find it difficult not to lay responsibility at the foot of Muslims. We see them as different, as dangerous and Other. Thus, we do not want to see an Islamic Community Center anywhere near ground zero in New York City. Our pain is still too raw and too real. And the political exploitation of this pain is an abomination.
However, I think something more may be at work here, something beyond the willingness of people to set aside the Constitutional protections of freedom of religion in this case in the name of wisdom, propriety and sensitivity. There is something more than a culture war or clash of civilizations at work here. I think the pain that many Americans feel at this moment is the fear that the September 11 signaled the end of America’s supremacy in the world.
Vietnam notwithstanding, since the end of World War II, the United States has stood astride the world as a Leviathan. As described in the book of Job:
Who can confront it and be safe?
–under the whole heaven, who?
. . .
Who can strip off its outer garment?
Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?
Who can open the doors of its face?
There is terror all around its teeth.
. . .
On earth it has no equal,
a creature without fear.
It surveys everything that is lofty;
It is king over all that are proud. (Job 40)
The Soviet Union was no match for our economic and military power. We deployed armies across the globe to advance our ideals and our economic interests. Our culture spread across the globe along with our fast food and soft drinks. And God was on our side. We were great because we were good. Or so we thought. On 9/11 neither our military might nor our economic power nor our cultural hegemony protected us, and God was present in the bravery of the rescue workers and ordinary people reaching out to each other to help and to comfort.
Since that time we have fought two protracted wars. Our combat forces withdrew from Iraq August 18, 2010, a few days ahead of schedule, with very little fanfare and none of the wall to wall television coverage that heralded our entrance into that needless conflict. (I applaud MSNBC for its coverage.) We have not captured or killed Osama bin Laden the man who is responsible for the attacks. Those we have caught leave us with a quandary about what to do with them as we seek to balance our security needs with our values of due process of law within a free society.
We have seen the limitations of our power as a nation in taking care of our citizens and our ecology in the wake of natural and manmade disasters-hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levies in New Orleans and the most recent BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Our economy is the worst it has been since the Great Depression. We are trillions of dollars in debt to other nations in the world, especially to the Chinese whose economic power is growing steadily as ours stagnates. We cannot control our borders, so that we have to come to terms with the changing complexion of the United States. We are becoming a more diverse society. Those of us whose identities are defined by America’s supremacy on any level face an identity crisis. We are trapped in a whirlwind not of our own choosing, and we are disoriented and powerless.
Thus, it is easy to vent our anger on a group of Muslims who want to build a community center in a building that has been abandoned since 9/11. It is easy to talk about disrespect for our grief. It is easy to push all kinds of emotional buttons for the sake of a few votes. (Ground Zero is thought to be too holy for a community center that intends to be a space for reconciliation, but the tragedy is not too holy for political exploitation. The logic boggles the mind and turns the stomach.) It seems that this is easier to do than to think about ways that we can turn the 9/11 tragedy into a reaffirmation of American ideals. The difficult thing to do is to welcome the Park 51 Community Center. It is the difficult thing to do, but it is also the right thing to do. It is right not only for the Islamic community that wants to build it, but it is right for the nation.
There is a reason that the scriptures teach us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, to do unto others as we would be done by, to forgive as we want to and need to be forgiven, to overcome evil with good, to even love our enemies. The moment we do this, we take our power back. Whenever we allow resentment and pain and fear and unforgiveness and will to revenge have place in our hearts or in our country, we continue to be subject to the event that caused us the pain and to the people that caused the event. We are never free of them. When we forgive and remember, when we love and remember, when we do good while we remember, we are free. We have taken back our moral agency.
However, as a nation, we cannot do this until we face the reality that we are not the world’s Leviathan. We are not a nation that is chosen by God above all other nations. We have to understand where our true power lies. It is not in the things that could not keep us safe from terrorist attacks. Our true power, our true strength lies in our values. It lies in our fidelity to the values of freedom and of equality under the law, even though we are still working on making those values more perfectly manifest in our country. Our true power lies in how we refuse the terrorists our terror, our fear and our suspicion of our Muslim sisters and brother. Our true power and our true strength is that from many we are one. It is from the strength of that unity that gives us the bravery not only to allow an Islamic Community Center two blocks from ground zero, but to welcome and to celebrate it.
If religion had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11, can religion contribute anything to the grief and healing that we hope shall follow? The Quakers taught us the notion to “speak truth to power.” But what can symbolism, even if in the name of truth, say to the power of pain and hate?
Symbolism in this case aspires to preserve the sacredness of the thousands of innocent lives that were ended on 9/11 along with the handful of guilty lives. In the absence of condemnations from the religious leaders of worldwide Islam of the guilty actions, to ask American political leadership to turn the other cheek is to demand sainthood from wheelers and dealers.
Sure, give us a saint or two in the right place at the right time, and politics might gain the strength to heal us. Instead, the best we can do is to muddle through. Be thankful that all that is required to move ahead is to obey the laws. Be thankful that sometimes our laws are based on the accumulated wisdom of experience. Pray for those who act in our names for the benefit of our commonwealth. Our grief remains. We can only pray for mercy for ourselves.
Excellent article! Thanks for sharing.
It is shameful how conservative politicians are exploiting the situation and building on fear, intolerance and bigotry for political gain.
We have to counter with many overlooked facts, including that we are discussing a community center 2 blocks from Ground Zero, not a mosque at Ground Zero, that many involved support the projects and, perhaps most of all that opponents are harming US security, since their opposition reduces the chances of winning the hearts and minds of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, and thereby endangering US soldiers.
In addition, we should resist efforts to distract attention from the tremendous mess that the Bush administration left and their obstruction Of Democratic efforts to improve things. We should challenge them to explain votes against saving jobs for teachers, fire fighters, police and others, extending unemployment benefits to long-time unemployed people, and providing medical help to first responders.
If you would like a list of talking points and questions to challenge Republicans, please contact me at president@JewishVeg.com.
You say that Islam teaches that Allah is merciful and compassionate. This is true only for those who accept the teachings of the Koran. For non-believers, the Koran repeats ad nauseum that they should be killed without mercy, they should be slain wherever they are found, their limbs should be severed and Muslims should seek to convert them and if unsuccessful, to kill them. These sentiments can be found repeatedly throughout the Koran. As for Allah being merciful and compassionate as you claim, this too applies only to believers in the Koran. For everyone else, the Koran is clear and consistent: Allah will throw all non-believers into a lake of fire. Thus, those who attacked the twin towers were not perverting Islam, they were acting in a godlike manner as described in the Koran. By burning the nonbelievers in a lake of fire, they were carrying out the will of Allah as explicitly described in the Koran. Teaching a fictionalized, wish-fulfillment version of the teachings of Islam may make us feel good, but it leaves us totally at a loss to understand the reasons for the attack, or how to defend ourselves from such attacks in the future.
Rabbi Barry Silver
Well said. Spot on, Rabbi Silver.
I find it the degree of denialism amongst self-proclaimed progressives regarding the genocidal — indeed quasi-Nazi — content of the Koran absolutely staggering.
What the Holiest Book of Islam Really says about Non-Muslims</a
Steven Emerson, Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has discovered 13 hours of audio tape which reveals that Rauf, contrary to the moderate image he wishes to project to his Western admirers is in fact a “radical extremist cleric who cloaks himself in sheep’s clothing.”
You can hear Steven Emerson’s interview with Bill Bennet here http://bit.ly/b1XMvC
The poop is scheduled to hit the fan next week round about next week, I believe.
Honored sir,
Your take on the Koran’s injunctions is incorrect. I have read the Koran over and over and have never found the pronouncements you have made. When reading selectively, and out of context I could show the same kind of vitriol and evil in your holy text as you have in the Koran, but I would be wrong. Your reading of the text is reductionist as is that of terrorists who use it to bolster their feelings of empowerment amongst the equally uneducated (in Islamic teachings and scholarship) that they try to bring along with them. Saying that their interpretation of Islam is the correct one gives them far more credit than they deserve and confers an authenticity on them that we all need to negate to the best of our ability. I’m sorry that you have read the text in such a way and hope that some day your views will change. Until then, let us pray for God to show us each the error of our ways and make us humble enough to converse and appreciate our common values. Amen
Cynthia,
It’s nice that apparently you don’t read incitement to violence against non-Muslims in the Koran. Unfortunately many have, and still do, for the simple reason that it certainly is in there. Perhaps you read an edited version?
“…let us pray for God to show us each the error of our ways…”
What would it take to convince you that maybe God was showing you that the religion you have chosen (or were born into and coercively persuaded to believe) is indeed error and falsehood?
How about the evidence from the Koran, Sunnah and Hadith — evidence considered authentic by Muslim scholars — that the Historical Mohammed was a narcissist, a misogynist, a rapist, a mass murderer, a polygamist and…. oh yes, the NINE YEAR OLD “wife”?
Is there any evidence that Muslims will not deny or discount when it comes to bolstering their untenable idealization of Islam & Mohammed?
I think that the original author and each of the responders has had interesting things to say. And I’d like to add my opinions to this discussion.
To Valerie Elverton-Dixon: I believe your article was thoughtful and heartfelt and its sentiments would be helpful for us all to consider, especially your insight that hate arises from pain. I disagree, to a certain extent, with your phraseology. Your usage of “we” and “us” to pertain to the United States, for instance, does not take into account those of us who struggled against those very hegemonic policies to which you refer. Personally, I take no responsibility for them.
To Rex: Often religion acts as a stand-in for politics, as it did in the case of 19th century Poland, whose strong Catholicism reflects, in part, Polish nationalism against those countries who divided Poland up until it ceased to exist; or in the case of 20th century Ireland, whose Protestant/Catholic dispute was a camouflaged pro- versus anti-Britain argument. Thus, in the case of the attack on the World Trade Center (and also the Pentagon, let us remember), the attackers made use of their religion to attack two symbols of the U.S. hegemony that Valerie was referring to in her original article.
To Richard Schwartz: I agree with what you wrote; I would only add that there are many more-or-less savory enterprises actually in operation even closer to the site of “ground zero” than this community center/mosque would be.
To Rabbi Barry Silver: Each of the three monotheistic religions has a history of violence in the name of its own “jealous God.” After Joshua fought the battle of Jericho (memorialized in the well-known Spiritual), he and his troops went around systematically attacking and destroying city after city and their occupants — men, women and children. The Christians’ behavior during the many religious wars of Europe, as well as the Christian Crusades against Islamic possession of “The Holy Land,” are well-documented. Do not single out Islam for your vitriol unless you are willing to do the same for other religions, including your own.
Rabbi Silver, you are blinded by your antipathy. And you are wrong to weigh in on my faith and sacred book as if you are an expert on it, the while your hostility and literal reductionism objectifies and dehumanizes instead of connecting to the majesty and magnanimity of God whom we also worship, God of Abraham , Noah, Mary, and Jesus, God who is active in human history, God who is One.
If you will only examine the Torah without the Talmudic commentary and apply your same exegisis (which is mor as you present here more akin to the Protocol of the Elders of Zion, than asincere attempt to understand Qur’an and Islam) then you will find far more that would paint the Jews as violent and bloodthirsty, incestuous and rampantly paternalistic, than you can possibly do when examining the Qur’an in copntext and wioth commentary and Hadith.
Sadly, we live in a Dark Ages, where zealots destroy scholarship and partisans play games with the truth as if their belief system were a favorite team.
In any case, Sir, I hope that your faith practice is more dynamically and transcendently rooted, than your base beliefs about mine.
Ms. Dixon, Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful. thank you,
“beneath the rosy assurances from Muslim apologists that Islam is about peace and tolerance lies a much darker reality that better explains the violence and deeply-rooted indifference. Quite simply, the Qur’an teaches supremacy, hate and hostility…”
Why the Violence? Why the Indifference?
Simple Example: If I can control your Fear – Your Pain – For the rest of Forever – By doing something stupid – meaningfull or not – Then your soul – your life – your very being belongs to me.
Fine article, Ms. Elverton-Dixon, but I think we should probably ask the question, Cui bono? Who benefits from the here correctly exposed irrationality of the hostility toward the Muslim community center at Park 51? Probably not most of the loudmouths currently weighing in against it. Certainly not the “better angels of our ‘natures’” in terms of north American democratic traditions. Since this hostility is a part of the current wave of anti-Other know-nothingism associated with one of the major parties, it serves to foster the illusion that we have a real choice by voting for and helping to fund the candidates of the other major party. Result: the forever put-off delay in the United States of a grassroots-based independent political action. Independent from what? You have two guesses.
After 9-11 I went to Shabbat services for the first time in many years — at the only synagogue in town. (I also went to the comminty center that was serving as masjid, becuase I had this idea that someone Jewish should be praying with them .)
At temple, the old and revered rabbi spoke at the end of the service. He prefeced his remarks by saying he felt a need to depart from his usual practice and respond to the current calamity. He then proceeded to read parts of an e-mail he had received, citing the Koran in much the same way as Rabbi Silver here.
We spoke afterward, with my nice Jewish boy self gently saying things similar to both Gene and Aminah above, especially about this kind of “quoting” from any religion’s holy book. Although we maintained a polite– indeed warm –tone throughout, the Rabbi completely rejected all of my ideas — most especially when I indirectly broughtup the possibility of some sought of community dialog.
Valerie’s very powerful essay is weakest in fudging of the insight about America as Leviathan. The rabbi could not hear me because his deep, comprehensive “story’ was of Jews as heroes (Joshua, modern Israel) and victims (most of history climaxing in the Holocaust). Most Americans are queasy about The Islamic cultural center not only because they have good reason to suspect it 9-11 represented a turning point in America’s fortune, but becuase they have a quasi-religious faith in AMerican heroism throughout history. That, of course, requires profound denial of everything from extermination of Native peoples to oppression/exploitation in Latin America and elsewhere. If not Leviathan, still a powerful and rapacious monster inside the “city on a hill”.
ALL our work here in some sense requires a constructive challenge to a deep and widely held story– in the same way as it does, say, for an Israeli peace activist.
I received the 2010 Spirit of Anne Frank Award from The Anne Frank Center USA ( http://www.annefrank.com/fileadmin/safa/cordell10.html ) for my work against the designating of any group as “Other”. In the course of my work, I, (a Jewish woman), befriended the families of innocent Muslim, Sikh and Hindu victims, murdered in the hate-backlash aftermath of 9/11.
I am now terribly concerned about the incendiary level of vitriol being employed to characterize all Muslims, worldwide.
Language of this sort has engendered hate-crimes throughout history, with perfectly innocent people targeted by perpetrators who feel they’ve received license from their society. No matter what one feels about the location of the Islamic Center, or the written tenets of any faith, why aren’t multitudes of faith communities, organizations, individuals, office-holders and candidates deploring this terrifying rhetoric? Will those who are screaming the stereotypes the loudest take responsibility when innocent Muslims (and others) are targeted in hate-crimes? Do we not remember the lessons of history, how stereotyping poisons societies, and how, incrementally, attitudes can lead to practices and policies and horrifying consequences?
Since September 11, 2001, the anti-Muslim drumbeat has impacted vast numbers of innocent people; Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and others, including those who were murdered by self-styled vigilantes in the aftermath of the 9/11. All the Muslims I know are traumatized by the characterizations that are now rampant. Rather than celebrating 9/11 (which they have been accused of doing), they grieve it and 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 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 Twin Towers had no idea whatsoever about the individuals 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? I hope everyone reading this comment speaks out, and implores your own faith community leaders and members, civic leaders, and everyone else, to speak out clearly against the reprehensible and dangerous climate now being manipulated by those who gain from it, and accepted by those who are susceptible to it.
If we could have interviewed, in depth, every person who died a victim at 9/11′s “ground zero,” we would certainly be left with a complicated collection of beliefs, worldviews and value systems, which we cannot possibly honor, by making wholesale decrees about one fifth of the people on this planet. What, I wonder, short of all Muslims simply magically disappearing, do those making these pronouncements hope will happen next?
More about this issue, the attitudes of Muslims, as well as the multitudes of “ground zeros” around the world which revert to everyday life, versus the sort of entitlement that Valerie refers to above, is discussed in my piece in the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-spear/the-world-is-full-of-grou_b_680324.html
Other links re. my work:
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/skokie/news/2580528,skokie-anya-080510-s1.article
And a recent cover story in the Chicago Jewish News:
http://www.chicagojewishnews.com/story.htm?sid=1&id=253978
I also strongly recommend Keith Olbermann’s comment on this issue, below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZpT2Muxoo0
Aug. 16: A Special Comment, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann
Anya Cordell
http://www.Appearance-ism.com
Author: “RACE: An OPEN & SHUT Case”
I do not expect all of us to ever agree completely on what is the best course of action. Even in the most trivial zoning issues, that is never, in my experience, the case.
Does anyone doubt that when the mosque opens, as I believe it will, there will be shouts from the MIddle East that the blow struck to the Great Satan by Allah’s servants is now the home of worship of Allah?
Further, should we let that inevitability determine what we do? To expect that somewhere in this incident there is an opportunity for revenge for the US is misguided. To silence those who know not what they are doing is impossible. I recommend reading the following: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/January/postmodern-politics-and-t_b_688375_57837541.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-de-zengotita/postmodern-politics-and-t_b_688375.html
Sorry. What I left originally was on my private account so probably will not work. The more general URL is above.
(Written a few years ago):
Rosie O’Grady
Sweet Rosie O’Grady
could have been Amina Adjuani.
You would have loved her anyway
if it was love; if else,
you would have turned away.
Now the leaves turn, the days turn
like newspaper pages: you read some,
skim, skip others altogether; the news
is not generally good
and will not go away.
Love anyway.
i really like this, and it contributes and somehow lifts this discussion
I was led here after reading Dr Dixon’s comments on another progressive blog. I am amazed by some the comments here , so political and some actually hateful . I thought Dr Dixon’s comments were great , but I disagreed . If the world perhaps was as kind hearted and loving as her comments , even if this facility/mosque being built perhaps could have turned out ok .
Now thanks to the political hacks , from Nancy Pelosis seeking investigations to those who making political litmus tests because the mosque is so unpopular there will be only winners and loosers.
Having a brother in law die on 9/11 being a first responder makes me cringe in how this has escalated .
Those who died there deserve better.
I share this one perspective as a Christian , and I hope I do not alienate anyone who is not. But if Christ was judging this issue , I am not sure exactly what he would say . But I would suggest its how we make our opinions in these kinds of matters that are actually more important then who is right .
First the First Amendment guarantees the right to this building . So that part despite the presidents cerebral yet emotionless speech need to point it out is just silly . I have not heard anyone or organization even state the Mosque did not have a “right” to be built . Having a right to do something is different then if it appropriate.
But to many , like Gettysburg , it is considered hallowed ground . But interestingly when others stated that Disney land was out of order for promoting a Theme Park there no one came to the rescue as here condemning them as bigots . Also all of one side did not appear to be liberal or all of one side appear to be the rest of us. $0 percent of those who stated they were liberal also are aginst this as being a smart thing to do .
Americans just thought a site where so many Americans gave their lives should be given a special area. Read the Gettysburg Address if you have not .
The fact people need to point out this is two blocks away I question also. For one the Wheel of one of the planes landed on this site . So I would suggest its Ground Zero , especially if you were in the building at the time that wheel hit.
I had a conversation at work about this , a person who was quite leftward and only heard the Rachel Meadow /liberal perspective . I guess its easier to speak common sense in person because he totally supports not having the mosque built there now . For one , if the reason was to support unity and togetherness that has only occurred in the liberal community . This blog is proof of the hate way others who may disagree with are stereotyped for their reasoning . Now regardless , if the mosque is built it will be as a victory over the narrow mindness of those who disagree. It will be a sterotype against sterotype affair.
The Muslim believers all through the country loose now also . The Mosque , place of worship is a reflection of their Faith . Their belief and relationship to all the things in how they believe, they link good , purity, and things of virtue to be connected to place of worship . All they most likely hear is the yelling of people from both sides and must feel very hurt . Which I assume with many will turn to anger.
The person from the Muslim organization is quite political . Was used by President Bush and Obama for service to his country . But being political he has also said some stupid things that are not intended for all to hear . Telling my family members , those who who had their husbands, wives, children , fathers, mothers , cousins , friends , and to the American people such things as we were an Accomplice to 9/11 , we are responsible for terrorism , and our policies were the cause makes as much sense to those grieving that says we Americans are responsible when a drug addict murders one of our kids . It makes no sense , it is evil to their ears . Unfortunately the tolerance of those on this blog seem to put a blind eye to those kind of comments . Because now to support this Mosque , you will ahve to support those comments . Which i have read on other blogs. No those murderers were responsible for 9/11.
Dr Dixon is alright , but I won’t be coming back here . Mean people suck .
Maybe in the small miracles dept., Mick will come back here. His post is full of struggle and conflicting emotions, for good reason. But he chokes on the possibility that along with needless death and bravery, there is some political connection between the U.S. role in the world and our calamity on 9-11. That connection does not justify terrorism in the least– but it is one essential piece of understanding for anyone who wants to move forward.
The myth that there was ONLY American innocence, victims and heroism made it easier for us to swallow a vengeance- and power-driven response. American soldiers — and many more civilians– are still paying for this in Iraq and Afghanistan. And yet that is only part of the price.
So the debate over Park51 becomes part of the struggle between those who use our fear and pain to further their political interests, and the healers. I am thankful for folks like Valerie Elverton-Dixon, for they are healers who touch (perhaps briefly) people like Mick, as well as the potential for healing in all of us.
And yes, mean people suck: As victims, exploiters — and both.
If the Cordoba Project (what a poorly-named project, since, so far as the Christians and Jews were concerned in conquered Visigothic Spain, it was certainly no golden age)/Park 51 (certainly a more inocuous name) were maybe not so prominent (15 stories is a big mosque/community center), then it might not arouse so much passion. It’s very size and scope lend the idea of it being triumphalist and in-your-face. Something more modest, and something that would be inclusive or other communities would be acceptable to most anyone–maybe a real focus on a less-radical Islam (definitely not Wahabism, which is responsible for so many radical madrasas, even in this country), and a mission of teaching about the horrors that the radicals have wrought worldwide to people of other faiths, to women, to a variety of minorities. Many Americans are concerned about the taint of possible Saudi funding, espcially if it is funding that encourages the spread of Wahabism in the United states. The Saudis are not known for their bridge-building and healing of disparate communities. If it is to be a community of bridge-builders, then start there, with some of these concerns.
Ground Zero, as are also Pearl Harbor and Gettysburg, et al, is sacred ground, a site that even today is yielding human remains. One commenter noted that little or no fuss was made over development at Gettysburg. This is not so. Every time development near Civil War battlefields is proposed, the issue is hotly debated. These sites will remain trigger points of strong emotions, emotions that are justified. This project has a target opening date of 11 September. That alone speaks to the insensitivity of its promoters. One commenter noted that unfortunate remarks have been made by Rauf. Definitely so, but his comments should not be simply excused, especially when he has a propensity to make many more radical remarks when speaking to Muslim audiences in Arabic. We should take him at his word, and consider carefully what we allow him to do. We should consider carefully the source(s) of the development and construction funds. That is only prudent. That alone makes it a public safety matter, and not just a public safety matter to be debated by New Yorkers.
No one disputes the right to build this mosque. The dispute is over whether or not it is appropriate to so ostentatiously build such a mosque in this spot. Will the strong feelings subside? I don’t know. Ask the Greeks/Eastern Orthodox if they feel better now about the seizure and continuing occupation of the Hagia Sophia. Ask the Jews how they feel about the expropriation of the Temple Mount. There are many more examples. How would the healers propose to heal there?
Another commenter throws in the herring of America’s ill-deeds of the past. I grant that, as a descendent of Native Americans of several tribes, and also a a descendent of Confederates; but, as a Veteran myself, who has fought for this country, I take great umbrage at the historical equivalences hinted at. This country, despite its faults, has been greater force for good in this world than any other nation, ever. We have also been a great force for good in the Islamic world. Look at Kosovo, for instance. We, along with the British, who have also had their historical faults, are the main providers of aid to Pakistan right now (#1 and #2). Almost nothing is coming from anywhere else, most notably other Islamic nations. Even India is now being reluctantly allowed by Pakistan to provide aid, something they denied the Ahmadi Muslims, who offered and were rebuffed.
Lastly, a word to the “healers”: It is hard for wounds to heal when they are re-cut, and then the knife is twisted in the wound. The opposition is not manipulated by crass political interests, and to insinuate that is insulting to thousands of Americans, if not millions. Those millions of citizens do not deny the right to worship; they question the propriety of and motivation behind this project, in this place. That will not change. There is no Shinto shrine at Pearl Harbor to this day, and for good reason. The opposition is not Know-Nothingism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, or anything else. It is simply the understanding that what may be legal, may not be right, and in this case, is not right. It is simply inappropriate, and we shouldn’t have to make excuses to anyone or justify how we feel about it to anyone. It should be a given to all. Obviously, to those who have intent to harm, it is not a given, and there lies the problem.
Gettysburg has been mentioned several times in this discussion, as an example of “hallowed ground”. From 46,000 to 51,000 Americans, approximately half Union and half Confederate, died there. It became a Union Army Cemetery and Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication.
A statue of General Robert E. Lee, head of the Confederate Army is there.
Would you have them take that down?
“Every time development near Civil War battlefields is proposed, the issue is hotly debated”
A is being debated currently. There is a proposal beig debated ot put a slots parlour up 1/2 mile from the Gettysburg Battlefield
Rights and Wrongs
Re: Goodman et al , well nearly all. I am now and have been a liberal and publicly spoken as a civil libertarian Quaker for many decades and have had a good experience living, with my family, in a Muslim nation for the UN, but am appalled by the pathetic intellectual lack of logic expressed in nearly all Comments here. Tikkun readers can surely be expected to think more clearly. Most are surely high-school and even college graduates who seem, when the chips are down, to have never learned or absorbed the difference between crime, [legally forbidden and punishable error], and simply rotten, wrong judgment. An ignorant blogger put such failed logic most simply, “If they have the freedom to build it there, they should.” Why should educated Americans be so emotionally incompetent in their knee-jerk group-think to fail to see what major Muslim thinkers around the world have concluded on the legal but dangerous, wrong site selection proposed for the 2,000 worshiper Ground Zero Mosque and huge community center? [Their comments cataloged in the August 25 NY Times and Wikipedia]. Even the clear distinction between legal rights and actual judgments to build spelled out by President Obama have not helped many NY Times and Tikkun readers to avoid the temptation to label negative judgment as bigotry and violations of the Bill of Rights!
As examples of Muslim distress over Park51: Authors Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah, board members of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said: New York currently boasts at least 30 mosques so it’s not as if there is pressing need to find space for worshipers. We Muslims know the … mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation, to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith, … as “Fitna,” meaning “mischief-making” that is clearly forbidden in the Koran…. As Muslims we are dismayed that our co-religionists have such little consideration for their fellow citizens, and wish to rub salt in their wounds and pretend they are applying a balm to sooth the pain
One more detail error in other comments: The Park51 location is not out of the 9-11 destruction site. The building purchased for the Mosque/Center, the Burlington Coat Company Factory building, has only been available as it was severely damaged by a major portion of one of the 9-11 airliners. Of course that just adds to the extremist Muslims view for their triumphal symbolic significance of the proposed Park51 and well as gives-away-the-store to the extremist Republicans, Beck et al, who will use the such liberal failure in judgment to take over our government in the election of Congress just a few weeks away.
I have written more on this in other articles as well as more appropriate building proposals for the 9-11 site that could directly promote constructive terrorist prevention and international/interfaith reconciliation around the world. Simply put, civilization may not survive nuclear etc terrorism in the next few decades if we fail to focus the use of trillions [the scale of energy spent on our current obscene wars] to build a world without grinding poverty and less hate.
i heard a lot just about this topic in the last few month and i consider it might be true. Eventhough i believe everyone is responsible for himself. No Offense, Just my opinion…