Mosque at Ground Zero? The issue is radioactive. The debate has been explosive. Rhetorical excess is running wild. And the battle is just heating up.
We hear: “If we build the mosque it is a victory for the terrorists.”
And: “If we don’t build the mosque it is a victory for the terrorists.”
This is a clear sign of profound confusion.
Many people have already made up their minds. Our deliberations have been characterized by pain, loss, trauma, fear, fantasy, hyperbole and hysteria. Missing from the conversation: reason, critical thinking, nuance and real and relevant facts.
You probably have an opinion on it—and you have every right to express it. But as the wise man said: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
Here’s a challenge for you. Are you willing to put your opinions to the test? Are your opinions based on fiction or facts?
Here are some frequently expressed statements regarding the so-called Mosque at Ground Zero that, upon closer examination, turn out to be not exactly true. Presented along with them are reliable, verifiable facts.
See for yourself. Find out how your views hold up to the facts of the case.
1. FICTION: There is a plan to build a mosque at Ground Zero.
FACT: False. There is no plan to build a mosque at Ground Zero. The structure is to be built two blocks north of Ground Zero and cannot be seen from the WTC site.
2. FICTION: There is a plan to build a mosque at Ground Zero.
FACT: Still false. The plan calls for an Islamic Cultural Center, open to the community, with a restaurant, art galleries, classrooms, theater, swimming pool and fitness center. There will be a place set aside for prayer but it cannot be called a mosque any more than a Catholic Hospital with a chapel is a church.
Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf told the NY Daily News on May 26, 2010, “It is not a mosque.”
3. FICTION: The American people will never allow a mosque at Ground Zero.
FACT: They already did. The Pentagon opened an interfaith chapel in November 2002 close to the area where hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building, killing 184 people. Muslim staffers gather there for a daily prayer service Monday through Thursday and hold a weekly worship service on Fridays. All that Islamic praying at Ground Zero has, so far, drawn no complaints.
4. FICTION: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the Islamic Cultural Center is a dangerous radical.
FACT: The Bush Adminstration appointed Imam Rauf as special envoy to the Mid-East to promote moderate Islam as part of its national security strategy. The Imam accompanied Bush advisor Karen Hughes to the 2006 Islamic World Forum in Qatar and has appeared at events overseas or meetings in Washington with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
On August 3, Time Magazine wrote: “Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, are actually the kind of Muslim leaders right-wing commentators fantasize about: modernists and moderates who openly condemn the death cult of al-Qaeda and its adherents…Since 9/11, Western "experts" have said repeatedly that Muslim leaders who fit Rauf's description should be sought out and empowered to fight the rising tide of extremism.”
5. FICTION: The people who killed 3,00 people in the name of Islam now want to build a monument to their crime.
FACT: This is “guilt by association” and it is false. Moderate Muslims like Imam Rauf have forcefully and repeated repudiated and denounced the kind of terrorism that produced 9/11.
On May 21, 2010, he told the New York Daily News: "We condemn terrorists. We recognize it exists in our faith, but we are committed to eradicate it…This is about moderate Muslims who intend to be and want to be part of the solution…This center is an attempt to prevent the next 9/11.”
6. FICTION: The Imam is associated with known terrorist groups.
FACT: The FBI has employed Imam Rauf as a counter terrorism consultant. On four occasions in 2003, he led held all-day training sessions for agents at the FBI's New York field office, not far from Ground Zero.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, "We've identified no law enforcement issues related to the proposed mosque."
7. FICTION: Imam Rauf refused to agree that Hamas is a terrorist organization.
FACT: In an interview on New York's WABC Radio, Rauf was asked whether he agrees with the State Department's designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization.
His response: "I'm not a politician. I try to avoid the issues. The issue of terrorism is a very complex question. ... The targeting of civilians is wrong. It is a sin in our religion. Whoever does it, targeting civilians is wrong. I am a supporter of the state of Israel.”
8. FICTION: A Mosque at Ground Zero is an insult to the memory of the 2,800 people who died there.
FACT: "There is no simple, singular 9/11 group who really should or could speak for all 9/11 family members," Donna Marsh O'Connor of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a coalition of more than 250 families which recently endorsed the mosque.
O'Connor, whose 29-year-old daughter Vanessa, pregnant at the time, was killed working on the 93rd floor of one of the twin towers, told Talking Points Memo in August 2010 that it is unfair for other groups of 9/11 families to act as if they are representing everyone who lost loved ones in the attacks.
According to Imam Rauf: “Yes, the center will have a public memorial to the victims of 9/11 as well as a meditation room where all will be welcome for quiet reflection. The center will support soul and body.”
9. FICTION: Allowing the Islamic Cultural Center in lower Manhattan will be a security risk and make us less safe.
FACT: Foreign policy experts have warned that anti-Muslim rhetoric surrounding the proposed Islamic cultural center in New York City threatens to undermine anti-terrorism efforts. The cause is not helped when someone like Rauf finds himself accused of being an extremist himself. If anything, this browbeating of a moderate Muslim empowers the narrative promoted by al-Qaeda: that the West loathes everything about Islam and will stop at nothing to destroy it.
A study conducted by Duke University and the University of North Carolina on American Muslims and terrorism concluded that contemporary mosques are actually a deterrent to the spread of militant Islam and terrorism. A Co-author of the study said, “Muslim-American communities have been active in preventing radicalization. This is one reason that Muslim-American terrorism has resulted in fewer than three dozen of the 136,000 murders committed in the United States since 9/11.”
10. FICTION: "The folks who want to build this mosque -- who are really radical Islamists who want to triumphally prove that they can build a mosque right next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by radical Islamists -- those folks don't have any interest in reaching out to the community. They're trying to make a case about supremacy.” Newt Gingrich, August 10, 2010.
FACT: Imam Rauf: “I have been the imam at a mosque in Tribeca for 27 years. I am as much a part of this community as anyone else. Our mosque is as much a part of the neighborhood as any church, synagogue or surrounding business.”
The congregation, currently in Tribeca, about 12 blocks from Ground Zero, has outgrown the site. Other religious groups in this circumstance search for a suitable location that will continue to serve their worshipers. They looked for a building downtown because it met the needs of their congregation.
As for reaching out to the community, Imam Rauf said: “The center will be open to all regardless of religion. Like a YMCA, the 92nd St. Y or the Jewish Community Center uptown, it will admit everyone. It will be a center for all New Yorkers.”
11. FICTION: There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.
FACT: The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The phrase “prohibiting free exercise thereof” sets the Constitutional standard. Looking to medieval theocratic monarchies as a model for how we can fulfill our Democratic institutions is definitely not the American way.
12. FICTION: It is not about religious freedom. It is about sensitivity.
FACT: Sensitivity—common decency, empathy, compassion, appreciation for the suffering of another. In order to qualify as real sensitivity it has to be reciprocal. Sensitivity is mutual. It goes both ways.
The kind of sensitivity opponents speak about is one way sensitivity—you should be sensitive to my concerns but I don’t have to be sensitive to your concerns.
That sensitivity is insincere, heartless and self-centered. It is fake sensitivity.
Wrote Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker: “We teach tolerance by being tolerant. We can't insist that our freedom of speech allows us to draw cartoons or produce plays that Muslims find offensive and then demand that they be more sensitive to our feelings.
“Nobody ever said freedom would be easy. We are challenged every day to reconcile what is allowable and what is acceptable. Compromise, though sometimes maddening, is part of the bargain. We let the Ku Klux Klan march, not because we agree with them but because they have a right to display their hideous ignorance.”
The clear and unambiguous protections offered by the First Amendment to the Constitution makes it about religious freedom.
13. FICTION: I support freedom of religion. But…
FACT: Anyone who advocates diluting, weakening, ignoring or violating the U. S. Constitution cannot be counted as a supporter of our sacred founding document. There is no “but” in the Constitution.
As President Obama has said: “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 that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure.”
So how did you do?
If you agreed with the facts of all 13 statements, you scored a perfect 100%. You are ready to stand proudly for TRUTH, JUSTICE and THE AMERICAN WAY.
If you agreed with 10-12 statements, you scored well enough to show your great respect for the U.S. Constitution.
If you did not go with the facts for fewer than 9 statements, you fail basic Constitutional law. Your homework: go read the Constitution.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Thursday, August 19th 2010 at 1:41PM
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