I received an email today from a young friend who had been sent some material against the proposed mosque at ground zero. He asked me about some points that troubled him. Whether it is insensitive to build a mosque there. Whether Muslims should be allowed to build a mosque in HIS city if they don't allow non-Muslims in Mecca. Why the west is tolerant of Islam if Islam isn't tolerant of America. He wanted to know if I agreed with those ideas. The questions caused me a lot of concern, so below was my answer:
Hi hon,
I am usually not for following the example of the lowest common denominator, by that I mean I don't follow the example of those I find to be small minded and hateful. First, I don't believe most Muslims want to destroy westerners. I believe that is an idea that is sold to Americans the same way that the idea that all Americans are like Bush, set on destroying Islam is sold to Arabic nations. I refuse to fall for that ridiculous claim. I believe that kind of hatred is most prevalent on uneducated or isolated groups, because the only information they have is fed to them by fundamentalists. Exactly like what happens here.
Ironically (or not), those ideas are mostly spread by people who have never had a relationship with Muslims, don't know anything about Islam, have never visited a Muslim country, don't speak Arabic, and have never had an educated conversation with Muslim communities. Somehow, nobody finds it odd that those people say they understand the minds and religion of Muslims. It's the same thing as saying that the religious fanatics in Arab countries understand Americans or Christians completely even though they have never visited the USA, don's speak English, don't understand Christianity and have based all their opinions on what some manipulative leader has told them. Odd, but commonly accepted here. Fundamentalists and prejudiced people here somehow find that is a legitimate way of judging 1.6 billion people, failing to see that if they really felt that way, we wouldn't be having a few terrorist attacks around the world, but instead, we would have a bomb exploding on a western country every minute.
Comparing all Muslims to terrorists is like comparing all Americans to the white supremacists (there are probably more of them in the world than terrorists anyway).
I think a mosque on the the WTC site is a great thing for human as well as practical reasons. For
human reasons because it would show that we have learned what intolerance, ignorance and hatred can cause, and that we know better than to follow that shameful example. That we understand that Muslims also died in the WTC attacks and that approximately 300 000 Muslims have been killed by American activities in the past 50 years. 100 times more people than were killed in the 9/11 attacks. The practical reasoning is that a new WTC would again become a major target for terrorist groups trying to make a point, and that having a mosque in the building could serve as a deterrent to attacks, since the heads of those cells would have to justify attacking a mosque to their brainwashed followers.
As for non Muslims being barred from entering Mecca. First, do keep in mind that Mecca is the holiest place in Islam, not a touristic spot. You are not a Muslim, so why would you need to go there? Secondly, the main way to tell when someone is not Muslim is because when someone doesn't know how to properly show respect, what their traditions are and what the respectful way to behave is, they aren't allowed in. Those kinds of limitations are common in most religions. On the other hand, non Muslims are welcome into most Muslim temples (and I can testify to that myself, since I have visited many) where people are sometimes guarded (no surprise), but welcome questions and discussions. I'd love to see if a Muslim woman wearing a Hajib entered some fundamentalist Christian church if they would get the same welcoming. Apparently people don't even want them to build a temple in NYC...and the Hijab was just banned in France... imagine that....
Secondly, it's not YOUR city. By YOUR city you are making the assumption that the city belongs to white, mostly Christian Americans. You aren't even in that group yourself, since you aren't religious. 40 - 50 percent of NYC are from another country. Muslims have been in the USA since the 1700's and about 10 - 15 percent of NYers are Muslims. This is their city too. They were also attacked when the WTC towers fell.
My opinions are not without criticism of both sides. I believe that both, moderate Muslims and moderate Christians aren't doing enough to educate people. Mostly that is caused by the large number of websites with extreme points and media like Fox (which is running, excitedly, the campaign against the Mosque if you look around) and the fact that the news media like extreme stories, not everyday people doing the right thing in peaceful ways.
Brainwashing people is easy, building up hatred is easy, blaming others for your problems is easy, fooling yourself that you are better than others is easy, spreading lies is easy. Just look around and see how people fail to see their own behavior when they blame others for acting just like them.
Doing the right thing... that's hard.
