President Obama’s Newfound Spine, Tarek Fatah & Raheel Raza’s Wrong Approach and The Gamble of a New Islamic Center at Ground Zero

Good.

Now only if he did that when health care reform was being hammered out and then perhaps every American would  have had a shot at decent health care. But I digress… I only hope that this is the beginning and that Obama stops attempting to play nice with the rethuglicans and trying to please the tea-bagger hit parade, the Fox News crowd and the Rush Limbaugh machine.

Here’s some of what President Obama had to say on the subject:

Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities – particularly in New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground.

But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.

Why not build a Muslim Center? It’s been nearly a decade since 9/11 and it seems that no one has been really serious about building anything on Ground Zero ever since.  From what I understand, there is still a gaping hole from where the explosions happened. It would seem to me that whether one left a gaping hole or built anything on the site, there will always be painful memories associated with the area.

What many fail to see is that many Muslims were victims of those attacks as well. Perhaps they would like to remember them as well as the other victims.

Perhaps building this center could be a way of trying to bridge the differences; to show that most Muslims denounce what a bunch of extremist thugs did.

And let’s face it, every religion has blood on its’ hands. Not one denomination can come out honestly to say that their clerics and followers have practiced as they should. Every denomination has extremist socio-paths, yet we only seem to not only concentrate on the Muslim ones but we tag the entire religion to them.  We seem to ignore other extremist socio-paths when they break the law. Remember that pulagamist sect in British Columbia not that long ago? Men in their 50s, 60s and 70s marrying many women and young girls; girls as young as 12; those same girls getting raped by these men, yet we as a society ignore them and ignore those poor girls. This brings me to my next point, many claim we’re in Afghanistan to protect the young Afghan girls from Taliban attrocities but we ignore the young girls on our own soil trapped on those compounds; why is that? Many are still pleading to society to forgive the priests who abused children and shame on those of us who want them brought to justice. I’m not going to compare which crimes are more serious; only comparing and contrasting our attitudes when Muslim extremists commit attrocities in the name of their religion vs when socio-paths of other denominations commit attrocities in the name of their religion. Again, I go off topic, but I simply wanted to make a point about how bigotted and paranoid we’ve become, to the point where ignore our own religious shortcomings; to point out our own hypocrisy.

Luca Manfredi, who is actually one of the more sane blogging tories provides some interesting arguments. While he believes it’s a gamble and has some reservations, overall, he believes the project should go ahead for the following reasons:

Firstly, its location would be a poignant reminder to its attendees about what happened close by. With a good and scholarly imam it could indeed turn into a centre preaching tolerance and peace. I wouldn’t set the odds too high on that one though.

Secondly, and no less importantly, the interest surrounding it could be a stimulus for both religions to study each other without resorting to rhetoric. Right now the dialectic resembles an exchange between Mullah Omar and Fred Phelps. Understanding and tolerance can come solely through a deep mutual study, in order to see  each other’s moral and philosophical bedrock. Islam is not radical by nature, but it does lend itself to misinterpretation. If the Cordoba centre helps correct the mistakes of many, it won’t be a waste of space and money.

Thirdly, it might at last serve as a stepping stone for many budding American Islamic scholars and imams. What should be encouraged (and maybe given a little money by Bloomberg the appeaser) is a closer tie to Egypt’s Al Azhar University rather than wahhabi Saudi madrassas. I am sure there are tons of American muslim youngsters who would love to study their religion and preach it. Their dreams are hijacked by the Saudis, who groom them into radicalism. Maybe, just maybe, Cordoba could be persuaded to reverse this trend and begin breeding a generation of well-versed American imams. That would go a long way to nipping the mosque radicalisation in the bud.

Sometimes I have to wonder about folks like Tarek Fatah and Raheel Raza. They came out against the center recently. Here is their take in the Calgary Herald. I read their arguments and to me, it sounded like they were catering to paranoia.  I understand that in their way, they want to be the voices for moderate Islam; to speak up for the silent majority, but often I find they take the wrong approach. I find that they’re simply pandering to western bigotry and ignorance rather than educating and reaching out to them, thus further feeding the sociopaths who are hijacking their own faith and culture. Such suggestions like this one sound alarm bells:

If Rauf is serious about building bridges, then he could have dedicated space in this so-called community centre to a church and synagogue…

How absurd! Rauf is Muslim; as Manfredi points out, what would he know about building a synagogue or a church for that matter? About as much as a Rabbi or a minister/priest building a mosque.

I can’t help but wonder if Fatah and Raza are suggesting that the only way to build bridges is to submit to Judaio-Christian society? Come to think of it; why haven’t any Jewish or Christian organizations thought about building a church or synagogue in that area in the last nine years? While we’re at it; why hasn’t Wall Street? Or any other company or NGO?   Why did no one think of building a commemorative plaque, another suggestion of Fatah and Raza? Is everyone simply content to leave a gaping hole of where it all happened?  Someone thinks to build something and many are now presuming to tell him what to build? To build what they themselves didn’t think of building in the last nine years?

Somebody is now expressing an interest in building and it is to be an Islamic center. Mayor Bloomberg has come out in favor of this project. And now, so has President Obama.  Sure, it is hitting him in the polls, but with the gang of tea-bagger misfits in the Rethuglicans these days, he may well survive this. Hell, if he can keep his spine throughout the rest of his mandate, perhaps he could even beat Sa-wah in 2012.  It’s good to see Mayor Bloomberg standing behind the president:

“clarion defense of the freedom of religion.”

Hopefully, many more, perhaps some fellow Democrats come forth to stand with their leader on this issue.

As for the GOP and the tea-baggers all crying out “it’s a slap in the face against the 9/11 victims”; I didn’t see their outrage when lil’ Georgie & Dickie cut 77% of health care funding  and cancelled a health monitoring program to these very same victims and former workers who can no longer work.  Their newfound solidarity for these victims now to cover their own paranoia and bigotry is really hollow.

Yeah, many, including, no doubt, Fatah and Raza, probably believe that the building of this Islamic center is nothing more than a deliberate provocation; a taunt to the Americans. I highly doubt that and we should give them the benefit of the doubt. If that proves to be the case somewhere down the road, then, shouldn’t it be incumbent upon us to not fall into that trap and rise above that? Wouldn’t that be a new attitude to show to the world?

Luca Manfredi is right though; it is a gamble, but not only for the reasons he mentioned in his post.   Read some of the comments at his post if you dare; much hatred and such awful creative evil ideas from some of them. Yes, for a blogging tory, that took guts for him to write so hats to him. I commend anyone publicly taking a stand in favor of the project; Dan Delmar had nothing but screeching callers who needed rubber rooms and surprisingly, redneck Ryan came out in favor too in spite of insane callers. I can only imagine those involved with the project must be going through. I wonder how many death threats Mayor Bloomberg is getting these days? Threats with President Obama seem to be a regular happening. For those reasons,  I, too, have some reservations about the project. I’m concerned about the safety of the contractors and all the workers building this project as well as potential sabotage. If it did get built and once the new Islamic center was built, I would be concerned about the safety of its’ members trying to attend. That said,  I also believe in nothing ventured; nothing gained. I say go ahead with the project but proceed with caution.