Great discussion! Unfortunately, my post is verrry long, Apologies if I rant on too much.
When I first learned about the proposed mosque, my initial reaction came from the heart: "F@*k no! Would we allow Sony or Mitsui to build an office building that towered over the U.S.S. Arizona?! No way, screw that mosque!" My brain did, in fact, engage a few minutes later and I realized I was comparing apples to oranges, again. I forgot that the U.S.S. Arizona is a national monument, in a national park and there's no way anyone is building over that site. That's not the situation in lower Manhattan. An Imam has chosen to build an Islamic Center on privately owned property, ordinarily free to be sold, unhindered by government interference, to whomever meets the seller's price, to do with as he pleases, so long as it it legal. Yes, it is exceptionally distasteful that the Imam has chosen to build the Islamic Center two blocks away from ground zero, but, there is no law that prevents the Imam from purchasing the property and using it for a legally sanctioned purpose. As much as I might disagree, an Islamic Cultural Center is a legal purpose. Are the opponents of the mosque asking to make Islamic culture, or Islam, illegal?
See, though I am old and cynical, I still believe that the U.S. is a nation based upon the rule of law. I might not like some of the laws enacted, but I believe our nation is based on the rule of secular, democratically enacted law. I believe, that the minute this nation moves away from the rule of law, and makes decisions based upon emotion, or what "we know to be wrong" or because popular opinion believes that something is "immoral", we move away from what the U.S. is supposed to represent, and move somewhat a little closer to the thinking of the zealot. If our government, whether City, State or Federal, took some action to stop the mosque from being built, without legal precedent or absent an enacted law, I believe that we lose, our nation loses, and the Islamic fundamentalist yahoos score a huge victory. If the U.S. does that, then it was the zealot who caused that change to occur, the zealot won. The way I see it, if we allow, or ask, our government to act outside of the rule of law and prevent "Islamic activity" in the U.S., we demonstrate to the world that we are a weak nation, that we do not trust the reasoned foundations of our nation and that in moments of crisis or fear, we will stop trusting our rule of law, our Constitution and will allow our government to resort to illegal acts, just to make us feel good. That thinking and action led to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. I had hoped that we, as a nation, recognized that mistake and would not repeat it.
I am just as angered by the Imam's decision as are other people who are arguing against the building of the mosque. I was standing on the corner of Ann & B'way the morning of 9/11/01, I watched with my own eyes as people fell/jumped from the north tower, I heard the second plane gun its engines the moment before ramming the south tower and my body shuddered from the impact/explosion, I watched both Towers collapse while standing on the Brooklyn Bridge. Weeks later I learned that three guys I grew up with and five colleagues died in the Towers that day. I don't want a mosque build there, but I do not want my government to resort to taking some illegal act to prevent it from being built. I do not want my fellow countrymen acting irrationally, out of fear and/or anger. We, as a nation, should be bigger than religious zealots who fancy themselves enemies of the U.S. It is our obligation to inform them that they won nothing; that we do not fear them; that we are stronger than they are; that our nation and our way of life continues and thrives! They need to know that, after all is said and done, they do not matter. The mosque should be taken in stride, just another day in NYC.
Bash away...
Topic: Muslim Center Lower Manhattan (Read 2131 times)
May 25, 2006, 08:45:46 PM