The line between racism and patriotism blurs every day. Despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s approval of the building of the Cordoba Center, a community center and mosque, two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City, many family members of victims, citizens and even politicians are waging a high-profile battle to prevent it.
The national director of the Anti-Defamation League even opposed the project and said survivors are entitled to feelings that would otherwise be seen as bigoted or irrational.
This is the most high profile of numerous cases around the nation where anti-Islamic sentiment is running rampant. Recently, Republican candidates in Tennessee have gathered protesters against the building of a mosque near a subdivision, while Tea Party members in California took dogs, which were intended as an offensive symbol to Muslims, and pickets to a Friday prayer service at a mosque. A Florida church is even planning an “International Burn a Quran Day” on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Though opposition to the Cordoba Center has been primarily based on a supposed lack of sensitivity and terrorist ties, other anti-Islam advocates have declared that Islam is a “violent” religion and has no place in the U.S. Many have cited books by critics of Islam but not the Qur‘an itself.
To say that Islam is a violent religion in comparison to Christianity’s passivity is deceiving. Islam encourages self-defense and fighting for rights, which is hardly foreign compared to the ideas evoked in the U.S. Constitution.
An often-overlooked principle of Islam is individual reasoning. Westerners, especially Americans, tend to stereotype Islam as a rigid practice that encompasses the acts of radicals, but this would be similar to characterizing cross (or now Quran) burning as typical of all Christians. Radical Muslims make their own choices but they don’t speak for an entire religion.
Isn’t Christian groups and Americans calling Islam a violent religion like the pot calling the kettle black?
Although Yeshua ben Yosef, or Jesus, preached peace, Christians have historically used bloodshed to advance their religion. The military campaigns known as the Crusades lasted from 1095 to 1291 and accounted for the estimated deaths of anywhere between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 people. Later on slave masters, missionaries and colonialists spread Christianity through brute force and manipulation well into the 20th century. This legacy of manipulation continues today.
Recently, the Taliban’s killing of 10 aid workers, including six Americans, in Afghanistan caused outrage because it displayed their willingness to murder civilians. However, NATO forces have murdered civilians and tried to cover up the real death count, as evidenced by the recently leaked war logs on Wikileaks.org.
Although, according to an August 14 New York Times report that a NATO attack caused civilian deaths, which are down overall 64 percent to only 69 in 2010, its increased presence has led to more military action and an overall increase in civilian casualties, including a 55 percent increase in deaths and injuries to children. To pretend like these lives are not as important as those of the ten aid workers is inherently unchristian and further proof of the national ire toward Islam.
Most of the anti-Islamic sentiment stems from the September 11 attacks, but many seem to forget that Muslims were among the victims. These Muslims shared American values, too.
Backers of the Cordoba Center and supporters of Islam throughout the country have responded by using protests and media such as Youtube.com to teach others that Islam is a peaceful religion.
A member of the aforementioned California mosque said that the mosque has given back to local food banks, sent supplies to Hurricane Katrina victims and organized events with interfaith councils. No one questioned their funding toward these acts. Building more mosques and community centers will serve to further educate and enlighten Americans. To block them is a show of ignorance and fear.
According to a CNN investigative report, the Cordoba Center actually hasn’t received any funding, nor has it started a funding campaign yet, which would make calls for an investigation unfounded.
Furthermore, concerns over whether mosques are receiving terrorist funding and support are overblown because all religious buildings throughout the country go through an investigative process.
Churches throughout the country have housed and produced Ku Klux Klan members for more than a century. Even though the KKK is the most infamous domestic terrorist group in the U.S., no one is protesting the building of churches because of their insensitivity to people of color, homosexuals and non-Christians.
This sends another hypocritical message to the international community that we fervently brag about the First Amendment to. It’s clear Muslims are getting different treatment toward their free speech than Christians, who historically have more American blood on their hands. How can we say this is not a war against Islam when we’re accosting Muslims, not al-Qaeda, with blind, sweeping prejudice?
The majority of Americans may be opposed to the Cordoba Center, but justice isn’t democratic and the majority has been wrong before.
Perhaps it’s time to try something radical like judging people not by the name of their god but by the content of their character.
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Mosque controversy is prejudice
Daily Emerald
August 21, 2010
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