August 29, 2010

Zero-ing on the wrong target...

The recent plans of building a mosque near the World Trade center site (Ground Zero) has got NYC and the whole of America up in arms. There are protests all over the country with opposition coming mainly from the families of 9/11 victims, politicians and organizations - including top Republicans like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich among the many. In fact, you can see buses in NYC showing advertisements which show a hijacked plane flying into the twin towers and a building with Islamic crescent and the words "Why There?". One banner, which was held by a protester in front of the proposed site, read, “Don't let Islam mark a victory with a mosque.”. Another sign read, “A mosque at ground zero spits on the graves of 9/11 victims.” The Americans somehow hold, very explicitly and verbally, the whole muslim community reponsible for 9/11.

Lets brush aside the facts that the mosque or the community center is being built on a private property in lower Manhattan which is NOT actually on the Ground zero site but 2 blocks away from it, and that only one floor of the proposed community center will be a mosque, and that President Obama himself has decided to back the plan and that Mayor of the NY city has supported it - Because no one seems to care - It seems people just dont want anything related to Islam anywhere near the Ground zero site, or maybe the whole of NYC.

So, do the families of 9/11 victims actually think that muslims (and not terrorists) are responsible for the WTC tragedy - quite evident from the state of affairs that they do. Now even if we consider this as a natural emotional response of people who have lost someone in a tragedy of this magnitude, shouldn't it be the duty of the politicians and leaders to make sure that the people know the difference. But here we actually see them adding fuel to the fire. We have even got a spin-off controversy that Obama could be a muslim and might actually be working against American interests - funny as it sounds, check it out yourself, the internet is full of it.
Its a mosque we are talking about, not a center of terrorism - let the difference not blur. Opposing a mosque near Ground zero reeks of religious intolerence. It is as blatant and ugly as labelling all muslims as terrorists and mosques as terrorist centers - every bit as ugly as blaming the whole of Christianity for the Ku Klux Klan and the Crusades. This is the peak of intolerence shown by the right-wing and has blown open the mentality of these people - the paranoia, the phobia, the gross generalizations, the accusations and the skepticism - its all so sickening - turns out that the they are no different from the Anti-american-slogan-shouting-arabs we see on Fox news all the time.

It is in the interests of everyone to let the mosque be built there - at least to show what America stands for. Just to show itself different from the religious fanatics that stand against it. One has to admire US president Barack Obama for steadfastly holding true to American ideals. Born to a Muslim father, Barack Hussein Obama has had to prove his patriotism time and again and he managed to win many hearts on the way, but just couldn't escape islamophobia. He made the best decision possible - in fact he had no real choice but to take the exact decision he did. On what real grounds other than pure religious discrimination could he oppose the building of a mosque? How American would that be?

Fortunately, there are some liberals who support the building of mosque too - the Supporters of mosque show up in equal numbers whenever there is a rally against it. Lets just hope that the left wins over right this time. Let’s stop figuring out ways to hate each other and figure out ways to coalesce around something we can all agree upon.
This is America's chance to show some tolerence and break some stereotypes - and to stop this dangerous game of guilt by association.



1 Comments:

Blogger Daniel... said...

I understand the protests against building of the Mosque. The people don't wanna be traumatized further by the sight of the mosque reminding them of the actions of radical Islamic groups who took the lives of their loved ones on 9/11.

If the mosque gets built. I would really love to see a Church, a Synagogue and a Temple right next to the Mosque. At least that would symbolize co-existing in harmony.

Sunday, December 12, 2010  

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