Ground Zero Mosque vs Park51

There has been an intense debate recently concerning the proposed "Ground Zero Mosque". Or maybe there hasn't been enough debate. Perhaps there has only been hate, anger, fear, ignorance, and raw emotion.

People aren't talking, they're yelling.
And nobody seems to be listening.

Sign from recent protest. From: BigPeace.com

A non-issue has been capturing headlines for far too long. In today's world we are bombarded by the media: 24-hour news stations, instant updates online, live video from next door or around the world on tv, online, on our phones.

But the more available information is to us, the less it seems that we are likely to search for answers ourselves. We've become content to sit in front of our screens and have a quick dose of news. Why read a whole article when you can read a blog? Why read a blog when you can read skim the headlines? We've adapted our attention to absorb only sound bites and buzz words.

That's ruining debate, it's ruining politics, and it's ruining democracy. Who cares about free speech if everyone is just talking at the same time? We need to think critically and at the same time we need to be open to other opinions and other points of view.


The "Ground Zero Mosque" are brilliant buzzwords that inherently create negative reactions. Ground Zero evokes 9/11 which makes one immediately think of terrorism and Al-Qaeda. Mosque is obviously Islamic, but once you're primed to think about terrorism and Al-Qaeda, Mosque becomes associated with negative feelings, horrible memories and a radical, violent form of Islam.

A good thing then that at least some news outlets are shying away from that name.


The Ground Zero Mosque could be baking apple pies but it'll still give you a negative gut reaction.

And it might be very well baking apple pies because the "Ground Zero Mosque" will, in fact, house a culinary center - it is not a Mosque in the traditional sense of the word. Yes, it'll have a prayer room but it will be much more than that. In addition to the culinary center, plans include: a swimming pool, fitness center, basketball courts, a library, an auditorium and several other features. It is meant to be a multi-cultural center and is in fact based on a Jewish model - the 92nd street Y. It is designed to promote interfaith interaction. All are welcome.

Feisal Abdul Rauf. From: NYTimes.com; Craig Ruttle/Associated Press

The man, the Imam, behind this threat against America? Feisal Abdul Rauf. Is he one of those extremists who is using his American freedom to subvert the country? Is he Al-Qaeda?

Plain and simple: No.

He is, in fact, one of those very moderate reformists that is standing up to radical Islam and who has been working steadily to promote peace and understanding.

In his 20s, Mr. Abdul Rauf ...was asked to lead a Sufi mosque, Masjid al-Farah. It was one of few with a female prayer leader, where women and men sat together at some rituals and some women do not cover their hair. And it was 12 blocks from the World Trade Center.

After 9/11, Mr. Abdul Rauf was all over the airwaves denouncing terrorism, urging Muslims to confront its presence among them, and saying that killing civilians violated Islam. “Targeting civilians is wrong. It is a sin in our religion,” and, “I am a supporter of the state of Israel.”

Before this controversy, the Iman was touring the world speaking to Muslims about reconciliation. He even had to convince less moderate Muslims that he was not, in fact, an agent of America.

Do you prefer Mr. Abdul Rauf's philosophy - and actions - or those of the Christian Pastor Terry Jones:

Perhaps the most radical opposition reported so far has been from Pastor Terry Jones at the non-denominational Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida. The pastor gained notoriety recently when he announced that he would be organising a burning of copies of the Koran on 11 September.

An imam is trying to sow seeds of cooperation and mutual respect whilst the "true American" is sowing seeds of racism and contempt.

Nazi book burning. From: socialistworker.co.uk

But let's not judge America by one man. Let's not judge America by the Ku Klux Klan. Let's not judge America on the violence at the Selma to Montgomery marches. Let's not judge America by the Jim Crow laws. Let's not judge the good Christians who built America on the backs of slaves.

And let us not judge Islam by Al-Qaeda.


A practitioner of Islam is building a multi-cultural center in New York City.
Islam is not Al-Qaeda.

George W. Bush understood this. In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush distanced Islam from Al-Qaeda:

No one can deny the success of freedom, but some men rage and fight against it. And one of the main sources of reaction and opposition is radical Islam — the perversion by a few of a noble faith into an ideology of terror and death.

Obama - and he isn't even Muslim - also understands this.

The current Republican and Conservative leadership do not.
That's why Rush Limbaugh equated Muslims to Nazis.
That's why Evangelist leader Franklin Graham calls "[Islam] a religion of hatred... a religion of war."

Does that mean the Christian world should go to war against Islam? Do we need to wipe them out before they wipe us out? Do we ban Islam from every Christian country? Do we murder in the name of peace?

Didn't that happen already?

From: stmaryscollegehull.co.uk

Remember also that historically, some of the most shocking brutality in the region was justified by the Bible, not the Koran. Crusaders massacred so many men, women and children in parts of Jerusalem that a Christian chronicler, Fulcher of Chartres, described an area ankle-deep in blood. While burning Jews alive, the crusaders sang, “Christ, We Adore Thee.”

If we are to avoid another holy war, more hate and more deaths, then we must be quick to act against misconceptions, big and small.

Islam is "a religion with a billion adherents, and al-Qaeda, a terrorist outfit that claims to speak in Islam’s name but has absolutely no right or mandate to do so."

Al-Qaeda is not building a mosque at ground zero.
A moderate Islamic Imam is building a community center several blocks away from ground zero.

You want to keep Ground Zero sacred? Then start by banning the vendors making profit on towers and t-shirts atop the graves of so many Americans. Or do you approve of the commercialization of 9/11?

Don't try to limit America's freedom of religion.
Don't give into fear or ignorance
Don't try to exclude Muslims from America.

America is better than that.


Pulitzer prize winning journalist William Kristof writes:

Now many Republicans... are cynically turning the Islamic center into a nationwide issue in hopes of votes. It is mind-boggling that so many Republicans are prepared to bolster the Al Qaeda narrative, and undermine the brave forces within Islam pushing for moderation...

Some Republicans say that it is not a matter of religious tolerance but of sensitivity to the feelings of relatives to those killed at ground zero. Hmm. They’re just like the Saudi officials who ban churches, and even confiscate Bibles, out of sensitivity to local feelings...

For much of American history, demagogues have manipulated irrational fears toward people of minority religious beliefs, particularly Catholics and Jews. Many Americans once honestly thought that Catholics could not be true Americans because they bore supreme loyalty to the Vatican...

Today’s crusaders against the Islamic community center are promoting a similar paranoid intolerance, and one day we will be ashamed of it.

Some already are.

The September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows is forming a coalition with over 40 religious and civic organizations in an attempt to "support religious freedom and diversity" and reject "crude stereotypes meant to frighten and divide us".

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg - echoing the (then untrustworthy Catholic) President John F. Kennedy - said in a recent speech:

"let me declare that we in New York are Jews and Christians and Muslims, and we always have been. And above all of that, we are Americans, each with an equal right to worship and pray where we choose. There is nowhere in the five boroughs that is off limits to any religion."

As it should be all across America.