I had hoped that this would be over by now but it looks like it’s going to be with us for a while so I feel obligated to expand what I said the other day. Feisal Abdul Rauf has an absolute right to build his Mosque wherever it is legal to do so. That includes the spot down by the site of 911. That’s what this country is about, the right of people to do what is legal, without restraint. If you don’t believe this you don’t belong here. This is what the president stated in his address last Friday. He was correct.
That said, it should be added that having the right to do something does not always mean one should exercise that right because sometimes rights are conflicting and often it is better to use ones judgment before exercising ones rights. The President said words to this effect on Saturday and was accused by the right and even some supposed neutral news reporters of waffling. Waffling is when you can’t make up your mind about something. It’s different than being able to see two sides of the same question. Being able to see more than one side of the same argument is called intelligence. This attribute seems to be something that in the last few years has become alien to the conservatives in our country.
The Muslim community seems to be torn by the whole thing and expresses very different opinions depending on to whom you are speaking. This is a good thing because it shows that the Muslim community has the same diversity as the country.
What the Muslim community is really worried about is not where the Mosque will be built, many hope it’s not build at all, but how they are viewed by the rest of their fellow Americans. I understand their problem. They view themselves as good Americans. They also see that a goodly number of their fellow Americans view them with suspicion and downright hostility. Most of them would like to see this whole controversy go away but at the same time they don’t want to be viewed as weak. I think it behooves us, the rest of the non-Muslim American’s , to understand this position and to not paint an entire religion with the brush of those who have corrupted it, because Al Queda is surely a corruption of true Islam.
It’s funny, but I grew up during WWII when we were at war with not just Germany and Japan, but Italy as well. My grandparents had come here from southern Italy in the late 1890’s and while the men had become citizens, the women had not. Why bother, they never left the house anyway. Then along came the war. My maternal grandfather was already dead but my grandmother was alive and had one son serving as a colonel in the army and another as an ensign in the navy. Despite this she was, because of her non-citizenship and her Italian heritage, declared an enemy alien. Now did anyone actually think this little old lady with two sons fighting for our country, could actually be an enemy spy? Preposterous, you say, but some dunderhead actually processed those papers and issued them. That guy, that clown who had my grandmother declared an enemy alien is the same guy the Muslims are worried about because they know that stupidity abounds in the bureaucracy and they worry constantly about the power those stupid people wield.
A perfect example is Rick Lazio, current conservative gubernatorial candidate in NY State. This is a guy who has no hope of ever getting elected governor, not because he is ugly or has bad breath but because he has no platform. He is intellectually bankrupt. He wants to governor. That’s his platform. Is he against anything other than his opponent? No. Is he for anything that will help the state? Who knows? Up until now he has exhibited no clue as to how to fix the many problems that face New York. He just wants to be governor. Now along comes this controversy and he’s finally got a platform. Sure it only appeals to the hate mongers but at least that’s something. He doesn’t want to stop the Mosque from being built. Because then his only platform will disappear. He just wants to continue the controversy so that he can jump in front of as many cameras as he can find.
Like much conservative doctrine, his position is based on lies and half-truths. He claims that Imam Rauf has stated that America is to blame for 911. What the Imam actually said was that we had to bear some of the responsibility for 911 because of certain aspects of our foreign policy, a position that is shared by many loyal Americans who actually understand our foreign policy, but he then went on to condemn the perpetrators of 911 as terrorists and murderers
Feisal Abdul Rauf is a Sufi Muslim. He is a leader of a sect that is hated by the Al Queda segment of the Muslim community. He has been threatened by them for his moderate views and he preaches a version if Islam that is far different than that of the terrorists who attacked us on 911 or the Taliban who we are now fighting in Afghanistan. Lazio ignores this mainly because it isn’t Imam Rauf that he is after. It’s Andrew Cuomo, his opponent in the gubernatorial race. He made this obvious Sunday morning when he started blaming Cuomo for not delving into the financing of the Mosque, claiming that much of it comes from Iran. Unfortunately no one has asked Lazio to prove this allegation, not it would mean anything if the money did come from Iran. Do we ask the Pope where the money comes from to build churches? Do we ask any other religion where their money comes from? The fact is that fund raising for the Mosque hasn’t even started so no one has any reason to look into where the funds came from. They don’t exist. But what do facts have to do with anything Rick Lazio has to say.
What Lazio is doing here is what the Republicans did in the 2004 election when they had no platform on which to run. They simply created a phony platform based on gay marriage and abortion, neither of which were really national issues but both of which had plenty of small minded opponents.
There are two bottom lines here. One is that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has the right to build his Mosque on the indicated location , but he should be smart enough and sensitive enough to build it someplace else. The other is that Rick Lazio is a stupid, insensitive clown who is blowing up a very delicate issue simply to advance a candidacy that has no chance of success.
Then just as I was about to publish the above, Imam Rauf decided to state his position in Wednesday’s, New York Times Op-Ed section. I couldn’t resist.
Feisal Abdul Rauf has an eloquent column in today’s Times in which he states all the reasons for going ahead with the proposed Mosque in lower Manhattan but manages to smoothly avoid the one reason it shouldn’t be built on that particular location. Imam Rauf has already established a reputation as a man who brings people together, a moderate Muslim who has been extremely successful in many aspects of life and one, who in most circumstances, could be looked up to for his opinions and his outlook.
However, like many rich and successful leaders, Imam Rauf suffers from an overdose of hubris, in that he has created a vision he finds it too perfect to question. Like the Roman conquerors, he desperately needs a slave, standing behind him on his chariot, whispering words of humility into his ear.
There is no doubt that the center he proposes is a great idea. As described in his Op-Ed piece it would surely be welcome anywhere in the city – except its current location. He speaks of being awed by how inflamed and emotional the reaction to his proposal have become. Really? Why should a Muslim be surprised at emotional reactions to supposed slights? He is a priest of a faith that issues fatwa’s, basically permissions to murder, at the most insignificant slight. So let’s not brush off or try to make insignificant the feelings of those who lost friends and loved ones on 911.
The leaders of other faiths and the politicians that the Imam refers to in his piece as supportive of Cordoba House are all coming down firmly on the side of law and order and religious freedom. There is no question that the Imam has the right to build the Mosque in its current location. However, with rights come responsibilities and if the Imam sees himself as having any further responsibility to his community’s acceptance in the American view then he should definitely think twice about location.
The Imam speaks of Cordoba, after which the center will be named as a place where Christians, Jews and Muslims co-existed in the Middle-Ages. They were probably able to do that by not stepping on each other’s sensibilities. He states, ”I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of the victims of 911…” He has a very insensitive way of showing that.
The Imam completes his column with a plea for peace, never considering that insulting the people with whom you wish to make peace is not a propitious first step. Maybe the Imam should sit back and rethink his positions geography and human relations.