{"id":1704,"date":"2010-08-22T14:11:30","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T19:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2010-08-23T17:01:50","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T22:01:50","slug":"religious-controversy-contd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1704","title":{"rendered":"Religious Controversy, Contd."},"content":{"rendered":"

I put my 2 cents in on the Catholic parish ‘revolt’ going on out in St. Louis in my last blog entry. So, for what little it’s worth, I shall now move over to Islam and throw a few coins out about the Park51 \/ Cordoba House mosque that a Sufi imam wishes to build near the former World Trade Center site, a.k.a. nine-eleven ground zero. I think that we all agree on the outlines of the controversy: here in America, the First Amendment guarantees groups like Imam Feisal’s Cordoba Initiative<\/a> the right to purchase property and put up a center for religious worship. There is no evidence that Feisal would use this facility to forward the cause of radical Islam or to promote terrorism or even anti-American attitudes. No one has suggested that Feisal and his associates would do anything illegal in their planned new mosque. However, the site involved does have a strong 9-11 connection; a part of the landing gear from the hijacked United Airlines flight 175 Boeing 767 crashed into the Park Place building after the plane decimated WTC tower 2. Despite all the mayhem nearby, no one in the building was hurt (this sort-of brings new meaning to the Foo Fighters’<\/strong> recent hit song, “When The Wheels Come Down”<\/strong>). Obviously, having a mosque at such a site offends many people who lost family or friends on 9-11, given the radical Islamist inspirations of Al Qadea. <\/p>\n

So, the argument is not about whether the law can stop the Imam from building. It is more focused on whether he should build, given American sensibilities. The last poll number I saw said that about 64% of Americans are against it. I guess that the next question is, if the Imam does go ahead and build, are the many Americans who have bad impressions of Islam as a whole justified in their attitudes (and thus, in their “sub-legal” prejudice against Muslims, e.g. social shunning, suspicious stares at anyone with an Arab appearance, etc.). In a January, 2010 poll, Gallup reported<\/a> that about 43% of Americans feel some prejudice against Muslims, and 55% view Islam negatively. I think it is safe to say that these numbers will increase if the Park51 mosque is built. The next question is, should they?<\/p>\n

Some writers have pointed out a bit of western hypocrisy, given how America and Western Europe responded to Islamic outrage when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons critical of Mohammad and Islam<\/a> in 2005. The cartoons were soon republished in newspapers in 50 other countries. Many Americans cheered about this on grounds of press freedom, a fundamental value protected by our Constitution. They denigrated the unhappy Muslim attitudes as being antiquated, uneducated, and unenlightened. Now, when the Constitution is on the side of the Muslims, we westerners seem to shift gears, saying that “you can, but you shouldn’t”. Which is just what many western imams said about the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. <\/p>\n

But then again, there is a bit more ‘skin in the game’ in this instance. I.e., 2,976 innocent victims dead, with probably over 10,000 family members and friends affected by their loss. On the other hand, I realize that the policies of “enlightened” western nations regarding Islamic regions has also resulted in many innocent Muslim deaths, e.g. when one of our drones aimed at a Taliban operative in Pakistan hits a wedding party, or when an American-supported dictator tortures and kills an anti-government Islamist; never forget that Saddam Hussein was once our friend. The bottom line for me is, has Imam Feisal done all he could do to account for the feelings and memories of the victims’ survivors, which he will disturb if he builds the mosque? Has he done anything in this regard?<\/p>\n

From what I’ve read so far, the good Imam is trying to present himself as a voice of Islamic moderation, as a member of Islam open to living in peace with Americans of every creed (or non-creed; lots of agnostics and atheists out there today). And yet, he seems to mumble when asked to condemn the 9-11 attack and organizations like Al Qaeda and Hamas and Hezbollah, who provoke terror quoting the voice of Mohammad. I myself would have expected a stronger, braver voice from an Islamic holy man (a Sufi, no less) seeking to lead worship on the spot “where the wheels came down” on 9-11: that he would have dedicated the mosque to the memory of the victims of the attack, and to condemning any future killing acts done in the name of Allah. I would expect an area of the mosque to be set aside for this; I would want to see the message written in stone and steel and concrete. I would like to see lasting, impressive monuments to remind everyone that a terrible, outrageous crime was committed here, and that Islam in its truth unconditionally condemns it.<\/p>\n

Is that too much to ask? Perhaps it is. Perhaps it would not satisfy enough people other than myself. Perhaps too many Muslims around the world would condemn Feisal for pandering in to the infidel, and perhaps too many red-blooded Americans would still not think it was enough. And I obviously cannot speak for the victims’ families.<\/p>\n

For now, though, that’s my additional two cents. I do wonder why no one has suggested what I propose above. Perhaps I am just naive. <\/p>\n

I would support Cordoba’s right to build, if it chooses to proceed. But I also won’t strongly condemn the majority of Americans who will rail against it (so long as that railing does not break any laws). According to a Gallup World poll of Muslims<\/a> in 10 countries done in 2006, seven percent of those surveyed were classified by Gallup as “political radicals” based on their responses to two questions: did they believe that the 9-11 attacks were completely justified, and do they have unfavorable view of the USA. Obviously, if this poll is trustworthy, then 93% of Muslims worldwide are not “radical”; and that would be “a vast majority”. Also, even amidst the 7%, many people obviously will never do anything violent to enforce their views. But still, seven percent of 1.3 billion Muslims is a lot of people. And seven percent is enough statistically for “clumping effects”, for the formation of groups with like views who reinforce and further radicalize each other. In other words, Islam does have a problem with its “hot-heads”. And I do wonder if the 93% majority and their leaders are doing enough to control them (or are they even more scared of them than we non-Muslim potential targets are).<\/p>\n

If Imam Feisal were to announce tomorrow that he is sponsoring an outreach to the victims of 9-11 regarding his building plans, and if he offered to place in glass and steel a permanent witness to the wrongness and un-Godliness of what was done that day, I for one would feel a bit better about trusting Islam to act responsibly in our western world culture. If not, however, I will be just a bit more understanding, if not supportive, of those who would criticize Muslims for leaving their poor lands and circumstances to live more comfortably in the west, while not making any real effort to control those who unfortunately do interpret their Holy Book as a call to conquer the very land that attracts them for its economic opportunity and freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I put my 2 cents in on the Catholic parish ‘revolt’ going on out in St. Louis in my last blog entry. So, for what little it’s worth, I shall now move over to Islam and throw a few coins out about the Park51 \/ Cordoba House mosque that a Sufi imam wishes to build […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}