For the Cordoba Initiative: Allison McCarty
One of these things is not like the other: the Al-Qaeda terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the moderate Muslims who want to build a community center in Manhattan. Conflating the two isn’t just bigoted— it’s dangerous.
As tensions escalate between supporters and opponents of the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque a wave of anti-Muslim harassment and violence has broken out across the country. A group of teenagers hurled obscenities and insults at a group of Muslims peacefully observing Ramadan, according to The New York Times. Recently, a suspected arson destroyed the proposed site of a mosque in Tennessee. Frightened Muslims also reported multiple gunshots.
Certainly most opponents of the proposed Cordoba Initiative are peaceful citizens. But irresponsible rhetoric can translate into a ruthless reality. Harassment or violence is a natural— and almost understandable— reaction for the people who honestly believe that moderate American Muslims are akin to the radical terrorists who killed more than 3000 people on 9/11.
Distinguishing between moderate and radical Muslims is important.
Opposition to the Cordoba Initiative relies on the dangerous equivocation between moderate and radical Islam. If there were no connection there would be no offense. Presumably the construction of a Dunkin’ Donuts or Eastern Orthodox Church near Ground Zero would not be seen as a “slap on the face” to the victims of 9/11 and their families.
In the eyes of some conservative commentators anti-Muslim sentiment is not bias but a reflection of reality. A 2009 Pew Research poll shows that 38 percent of Americans believe Islam encourages more violence than other religions. If Islam is inherently violent and intolerant as the argument goes then even moderate Muslims have no right to equal treatment.
But Matthew 7:1 warns “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” If evaluated solely on its most despicable passages and adherents Christianity would also fare quite poorly. The medieval chronicle “Gesta Danorum brags about the Christian” conquest during the Crusades saying “the slaughter [in Jerusalem] was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles.”
In Uganda today Member of Parliament David Bahati is pushing for an anti-homosexuality bill that would assign the death penalty for homosexuality. From Bahati’s perspective Ugandans must engage in “spiritual battle” and “kill every last gay person” in the country.
These two examples do not demonstrate that Christianity is an inherently violent and intolerant religion. These and countless other perversions of the Christian faith only prove the obvious— that this world is full of evil people. But spoons did not make Michael Moore fat and we cannot automatically blame a religion for atrocities committed by its adherents.
In a diverse country we cannot afford to make intolerant assumptions about individuals from other faith traditions. An estimated 2 to 7 million Muslims live in the United States. Most are moderates who save their money to paint their kitchens and send their children to college— not to buy fertilizer and blow up prominent buildings. To be an American and a Muslim is not an oxymoron or at least it shouldn’t be.
If we can learn anything from France it is that individuals should not be forced to choose between their religious and national identities. France’s recently proposed burqa ban is just one chapter in the ongoing alienation of French Muslims that in an unfortunate manner is succeeding.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that millions of “French Muslims” no longer consider themselves French and are self-segregating from mainstream French society. Many Muslim children won’t draw right angles which look too much like Christian crosses and some schools even have separate restrooms for “Muslims” and “Frenchmen.” In 2005 violent riots led by youth from segregated Muslim ghettos paralyzed the country for a month and burned 1000 vehicles.
Ironically the idea that Islam is intolerant and violent may make intolerance and violence a recurring theme in the American political landscape. Americans should embrace the Cordoba Initiative because persecuting moderate Muslims does not honor the dead— it merely jeopardizes the future of our country.
Against the Cordoba Initiative: Chris Garcia
Nine years ago on Sept. 112001 radical Islamic terrorists hijacked four airplanes and murdered nearly 3000 innocent people marking the worst terrorist attack on the United States in history.
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center rapidly transformed into an inferno with trapped fathers and mothers calling their children in tears to say their last goodbyes— others leaping to their deaths in desperation.
The towers would collapse later that morning leaving behind an aftermath of smoke and scattered debris. Charred and broken bodies of many murdered civilians were never identified and America awoke to the destruction caused by the enemies of freedom.
If you’re reading this then you probably voted for President Barack Obama. Families of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks can now thank you for electing a man who shares common ground with the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas. At a White House dinner speech Aug. 13 Obama announced his support for the construction of the Cordoba House mosque— the Islamic center whose planned construction is two blocks from Ground Zero. Obama’s statement that Muslims have “the right to build a place of worship” in the shadow of Ground Zero is a clear indication of his continuous oblivion. While th
e president of the United States is charged with the duty to uphold the Constitution and the freedoms protected therein the duty also is vested in him to defend the American families who lost their loved ones on that very sacred ground.
Advocates who support the mosque’s construction are equally naïve but considerably more foolish for thinking that a constitutional debate can overshadow this slap in the face to families of the 9/11 victims.
Dense proponents overlook the crucial fact that throughout Islamic history Muslims have built symbols of victory and triumph on the grounds that they conquer. The current project in lower Manhattan is deliberately named after “The Great Mosque” in Cordoba Spain which was built in the early 8th century after Islamic warriors tore down the Christian Church of Saint Vincent. To Muslims the Cordoba Mosque signified the conquest over Christians in Southern Spain and confirmed Islam’s supremacy over Christianity. And now in the wake of the ninth anniversary of 9/11 radical Muslim leaders will declare symbolic victory over the United States by constructing a mosque just steps from where the World Trade Center once stood.
Outraged Americans are further questioning the credibility given to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf the Islamic leader behind the mosque’s construction. Rauf claims that the center will be a place for all faiths to peaceably join together for understanding but his radical record proves otherwise. Following the 9/11attacks in an interview with Ed Bradley on CBS Rauf claimed that he believed that the United States was “an accessory to the [9/11 terrorist attacks].”
Additionally Rauf has repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization even though the group has trained a number of suicide bombers and is listed on the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Yet Obama New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other senseless elected officials remain stubborn in their support of the mosque ignoring two-thirds of Americans who oppose it.
Moving forward with the building of the Ground Zero mosque only confirms for radical Islamic terrorists that they have achieved what they sought to accomplish on 9/11: the defeat of Americans and everything we stand for.
We live in a world where our way of life as Americans is constantly under attack. We must take back our nation from those who refuse to protect us and whose failure to act makes them enemies of freedom.
With Obama declaring an end to the War on Terror the duty is left to Americans to rise up and defend our country from all enemies foreign and domestic. “Freedom as President Ronald Reagan said, is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Now is the time to stand for what is right and for all that is good and just. Now is the time to stand for America.