Rancor surrounding the proposed Park51 community center in New York City is a painful indication of how little progress America has made in healing the national wound created on Sept. 11, 2001.
Immediately following these attacks, many of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims castigated the terrorists responsible. However, nearly a decade later, not only are many Americans unable or unwilling to recall this, but according to a recent Pew study, a growing number of U.S. citizens now believe ”” erroneously and prejudicially ”” that President Obama is himself a Muslim. More harmful than the ignorance behind these mistaken beliefs is that they curtail the ability of faith communities to offer much-needed guidance and healing.
IMHO, a poor and offensive attempt to build an analogy.
In what way do you find the analogy lacking?
As a creative device it borders on the absurd. There are no comparable domestic “Christian” groups calling for the violent overthrow of the government as al-Qaeda, a worldwide Islamic group does. It also posits that the reason behind the proposed mosque is in “the hope [that] disaffected [Islamic] youth…might be reached before they are radicalized, and other terrorist attacks will be prevented.” I don’t know of any such motivation behind its establishment, nor its location.
It is offensive in that it implies that conservative Christians who do have issues with the government are subversive or harbor violent ideas. It is personally offensive because I know the public shock and shame felt by the Catholic community in Buffalo after Tim McVeigh did what he did and I know that violence against the government (or those not of the Faith) was not preached in his parish. As well, the public sentiment of Americans was that this bombing of the Murrah Building was a terrible, heinous act.
Quite frankly, this is nutty.
If you really believe
[blockquote]There are no comparable domestic “Christian†groups calling for the violent overthrow of the government as al-Qaeda, a worldwide Islamic group does.[/blockquote]
you know about as much about terrorist groups that identify with Christianity as you apparently do about Islam. See, e.g., [url=http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=98]Militias, Christian Identity and the Radical Right[/url] by Michael Barkun.
How is it that the obvious fact that “the public sentiment of Americans was that this bombing of the Murrah Building was a terrible, heinous act” gets Christians off the hook, while the equivalent expressions of horror by most Muslims for the last 9 years have had no such impact. The difference, quite obviously, is that Christians are the majority in this country, while Muslims aren’t.
Dale, I never said there aren’t groups of folk in America who claim the explicit guidance of the Bible, God, and Jesus Christ in their desire to shoot weapons _at people_ and blow up stuff _when other people are nearby_. But, they are few, very few, and don’t have followings outside of the valley they live in (and 935 Pennsylvania Ave NW). I’d be surprised if greater than 1:100 Americans did not consider such groups to be “nutjobs.”
And I do appreciate that there are Muslims outside America and resident here who also consider their fellows calling for the violent overthrow of the West and the recreation of some Muslim Golden Age to be nutjobs. And that there are Muslims with grievances against America and how our foreign policies have effected them who maybe don’t want the total destruction of America but feel we ought to get a taste of what we (or our friends) dish out to them.
And, for the record, I’m ambivalent regarding the mosque or social center in question in southern Manhattan.
Whatever. I stand by what I wrote. It wasn’t a radical neo right-wing Christian group with churches and a following all over calling for the destruction of America that built and set off the bomb killing whoever was in the way in OK. I don’t care for the analogy or like the op-ed piece.
Dale made my point.
BlueOntario, you say you don’t know the motivation behind Park51. The leader, Imam Rauf, has expressed his motives several times in the past nine months but is also quoted on CNN just today saying “I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. [b]Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.[/b]”
You then say:[blockquote]It is personally offensive because I know the public shock and shame felt by the Catholic community in Buffalo after Tim McVeigh did what he did and I know that violence against the government (or those not of the Faith) was not preached in his parish. As well, the public sentiment of Americans was that this bombing of the Murrah Building was a terrible, heinous act. [/blockquote] This is exactly analagous to how American Muslims felt after 9/11.
The analogy fails on the basis that Timothy McVeigh, who was NOT a practicing Christian, did not blow up the building in the name of God or the name of Christ, or to accomplish a religious end. McVeigh’s grievances were entirely political, not religious. The 9/11 hijackers — who WERE practicing Muslims — were doing their deeds in the name of Allah. They DID have a religious rationale in their minds for what they did.
As for Imam Rauf, if he is trying to build religious understanding as he says, he should know by now that he is failing utterly. No matter what he says, tho’, he will show the Islamic world that a great building (which includes a mosque) has risen on the ashes of 9/11 — much as mosques now occupy the sites of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, the Hagia Sophia in Instanbul, and the Cordoba cathedral-turned-mosque-turned cathedral in Spain. The Imam may say something in soft sweet words in the US, but it will be perceived by the Muslim world as commemorating a victory over the infidel. (It’s called the “Cordoba Initiative,” as if that wasn’t clue enough).
As for Serena Jones’ assertion that “immediately following these attacks, many of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims castigated the terrorists responsible” — I’m sorry, I was paying attention at the time, and any denunciations were few, far between, and weak beer at best. I’m sure most Muslims were horrified by the events of 9/11, but the leadership as a whole was less-than-forthcoming.