Is it wrong to be sensitive about something that caused massive pain and suffer, not just for a city, but also felt as a nation? You would probably say, no Mark, that’s normal. Wounds can take a long time to heal and people should respect that. At least, you would think they could. But that’s not the case.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: If he’s on the World Economic Forum, shouldn’t that be enough to cause you to wonder about him mentally?
Unless you’ve been living underneath a rock, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (who I will now refer to as Imam because that’s too much writing) decided that it would be a good idea to open a Mosque at Ground Zero to “bridge the great divide”. And you know what, that doesn’t have to be such a terrible idea either. But right now, with all that is going on in the world, and given all that has happened, it’s wrong time and wrong place.
Our country provides for religious freedom and that is a wonderful thing. We are a diverse people and that is something that is an undeniable truth. There is, however, still an open sore that some people have caused who happen to share religions involved in the devastating attack that occurred at Ground Zero. But let’s face facts, there are other places to build this center.
Imam doesn’t get it, he’s trying to shove something down the face of New Yorkers who don’t want this. This isn’t going to bridge the gap, this is going to continue to foster ill will. If opened in another section of New York City, there would be no controversy and would hopefully be welcomed. But like I said, there are some places and some times that just don’t mix with what you want to do. I get the idea, I get the concept and I’m all for peace. However, if you’re going to form something to further grow that community you have to have the blessing of said community and it just won’t happen.
TIME Magazine has an article which calls this Islamophobia. I don’t think that’s what’s going on at all. There may be some people like that, but I think it more goes along the lines of rubbing salt into someone’s wounds. I think New Yorkers feel that Imam is thumbing his nose at them and rubbing their culture and religion in their face. Let’s not forget that these terrorists were religious zealots who despised our “Western culture”. Let’s not forget there are still plenty of those zealots still in our country and we keep finding more and more of them!
Can you imagine how many of these zealots would visit this site just as a way of further thumbing their nose at us? Can you imagine if some of them managed to operate out of there? My goodness, if that happened, the backlash would be so great, if they thought there was Islamophobia now, it would be nothing compared to that. And these people are good at covering themselves up and avoiding notice and already operate under our noses. How fitting of a place would this be? The Muslim community has been cast in a negative enough light, they don’t need this. They don’t need to jump out into the spotlight, no matter how much they want to heal the wounds. Wounds heal with time and it still feels fresh to a lot of people.
I don’t get why Imam is so insistent on this being built. I’m not sure why you would want to risk the backlash that is already happening. The best thing would be for him to say, “I can see that the wounds are not healed yet and I’m sorry. We will continue to work to cast our religion in a positive light and foster community with those of other religions. At this time, we will seek another venue and hope that the great people of New York will come and enjoy it with us and that we can heal these wounds together.” Where is that speech? Where? To me, that is basically stating that he, himself, is insensitive about this. I don’t like it and I don’t like where this is going. So Imam, you can use the speech I have prepared for you to heal these wounds or you can do more harm than good. Maybe everyone will get over it eventually, but with the lack of sensitivity many feel, it won’t soon. I want these wounds to heal and he should too.
It wouldn't be that muslims have a thing through their history of building large shiny mosques on conquered lands as a way of showing domination of it's people?
ReplyDeleteLOL, how interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis mosque, IMHO, is nothing more than militant Islam planting a victory flag on Ground Zero to show that they have won. This Imam has said some very controversial things, he won't call Hamas a terrorist group (our State Dept. has them classified as such for many years) and the group financing this is suspected of getting funds from groups tied to Hezbollah and Hamas. This mosque should be moved to a different spot, but it probably won't.
ReplyDeleteImam Rauf isn't being insistant that the community center be built there, it is being built there. It is the opposition that is too late to the party that is trying to insist it not be built. The community center has already been apporved by locals, and local govt. It is non-ground zero natives who have a problem with it, not those that are already in the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteBTW: Imam is a title (ie.. Father, Sir, Mrs. etc...) so it he should be refered to as "the Imam" etc...