I saw Mayor Bloomberg talking today about how allowing a mosque at Ground Zero was required by freedom of religion and separation of church and State. He said things like (and I'm paraphrasing here), "if we give in to popular thought and don't allow it, then we allow the terrorists to win." He reminded us of our Muslim brothers and sisters who died that day and those who grieved with us after. He said so many things that ring of truth.
Except that they don't.
Of course I believe in freedom of religion and speech, and separation of church and State. I also believe that we need to be careful of playing into Al Quaeda's hands with our stupid, pig-headed reactions. I recognize that there is no guilt-by-association for the Muslims who live and die here. However, all that does not mean I am onboard with the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero.
It just feels like a big, fat slap in the face to allow a mosque there. Frankly, I don't see why ANY religious building needs to be there -- it was a church to the dollar bill before, so why change that now? I have heard that the idea is to have a mosque there to help educate people that bin Laden and friends do not represent the majority of Islam -- and I totally get that. I support that concept.
But does it have to be at Ground Zero? Why not someplace nearby, but not ON the premises? I say this not out of some misplaced anger, fear, or bigotry toward Muslims; I say it because it seems disrespectful and in poor taste. It seems to dishonor the memory of that day.
How would we feel about putting some sort of Japanese cultural or religious structure at Pearl Harbor? How do millions of Jews (and others!) feel about the presence of a cross at Auschwitz? How would the residents of Hiroshima feel if we built a giant cathedral in their town?
I am all for educating the (generally stupid) American masses about Islam and pointing out that 9/11 was perpetrated by fundamentalist nut-jobs. However, I just cannot find anything within myself that makes it ok to put a mosque at Ground Zero.
What I find most interesting about this issue is that all the liberal folks on, say, MSNBC, are saying that opinions like mine are bigoted. I saw Russell Simmons on Keith Olbermann just today, talking about how the push to ban a mosque from G.Z. was some awful, racist, unethical thing. Really? I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call "overdone political correctness" on this one. Please tell me how it is at all ok, or even necessary, for a mosque to be there?
I realize that this plays into a bigger phenomenon -- that of people trying to ban mosques in their towns. Now that is bullshit. If there are Muslims in your town, then they deserve a place of worship. Fuck you and your pantywaist, uneducated fears. In fact, I am quite pleased to see some sort of Islamic center in my own town. Good for them!
I am not going to say it's Right or Wrong to have a mosque at Ground Zero. I don't think anyone would go to Hell if we allow one. What I will say is that it is poor judgment. Seriously, do the proponents not see how this could be exceedingly offensive? Are people really going to play into the stereotype of overblown political correctness?
I'm sorry, but I just feel this is wrong. I just can't see how it's ok to have a mosque there -- and it's not because I'm some Tea Bagger crazy person. It is just a slap in the face to all those who died, period. Out of respect we should not allow it on the premises of Ground Zero. Near enough by that people can go to it, absolutely. But GZ itself, I'm sorry. Let's just rebuild the financial buildings that we need and move on.
I don't get it either. Are we going to put all the other types of places of worship there too? There's plenty more...
ReplyDeleteI disagree: psychos flew the planes into the towers and the pentagon. They espoused an islam that has about the same relationship to established islam as medieval crusaderism has to modern catholicism. A mosque at ground zero expresses the idea that it was a group of psychos and not islam as a whole that perpetrated the horror. if you want to educate americans about islam this is a great opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI also dont buy all of your analogies. Christians died at aushwitz and the bombing of pearl harbor was undertaken by a popularly supported but largely unelected government - not a few psychos. One could make the argument that the a majority of the japanese population supported the war with nationalistic fervor at its beginning. we went to war against japan as a whole nation, not against a few psychos at the margins of the japanese nation. However recent narratives (the recent clint eastwood iwo jima films) have attempted to merge the japanese and ameircan memories of the conflict as a way to rise above the knee jerk nationalisms of the countries - the movies are bad but not for that reason.
a possible alternative: the japanese emperor recently visited okinawa, an inferno where about 100,000 japanese soldiers and more than 200,000 japanese civilians were killed during the two months of fighting. (about 12,000 US soldiers died) The emperor just stood silent, aware that words would absolutely diminish the significance of this horrendous trauma.
So while I think ground zero is an appropriate place to distinguish real islam from the psychosis of the rabid terrorists, i could compromise and argue that there should be nothing there - can an artist, remembrancer, president, victim or anyone else sum up the pain? I dont think so. Many jews feel the same way about the world war two mass killings, and they acknowledge the ultimate impossibility of being able to come to grips with it.
The 20th century also calls into question religion itself: christianity, islam and judaism espouse the idea that justice will one day prevail and that all atrocities will be redeemed. I cant find that faith in myself and I highly suspect the sanity of those who say that they can.
how can the millions of different meanings associated with these deaths find redemption?
a mosque at ground zero would be a place where people would be trying to do good. that is a start toward this redemption but it is a tear drop in the ocean.
Mybe there should be a church for the faiths of the victims?
James