The Online Reflector

CON

Nine years have passed since the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and approximately 1,500 years since the rise of Islam.

If the majority of the world could not understand Islam for its first 1,500 years, then there is little hope that a country brimming with furious Americans will understand it only nine years after the most devastating terrorist attack in this country’s history – a terrorist attack executed in the name of Islam, albeit radical Islam.

The proposed community center in New York City is to be a place of worship, a place of community and most importantly, a place of peace.

Why is this so difficult to understand? Why is this story dominating news all across the world? Ignorance.

The term is not used insultingly, but neither is it used lightly. It is a cold, hard fact. Ignorance is alive, and there are few hopeful signs that point to its diminishing anytime soon. The painful truth is that even as educated and as traveled as many people are these days, societies, cultures and religions are becoming more like private clubs.

How far into the world of Islam can non-Muslims get before the ignorance kicks in? Not far.
The word “Muslim” itself is now connected with the word “terrorist.” That seems like quite a leap, but is it? Not in the minds of a frighteningly large number of non-Muslims everywhere.

Some of us might brush aside this ignorance with a roll of our eyes, but what does the mosque truly symbolize?

If in ignorant minds a Muslim is a terrorist and a mosque is a Muslim place of worship, then what is being built two blocks from Ground Zero is a Place of Terrorist Worship.
Ignorance breeds fear, and fear breeds, among other things, violence.

Americans will learn eventually. Maybe. Even better, you might say “give it time.” Let’s take time out of the equation and focus on what we are all really worrying about – consequences.

Let’s steer away from violence and terrorism. There is more than enough talk about that.
Instead, let’s look at the long term. Muslims have a right to worship where they want, and America eventually will move past this, but is that what we really want?

Do we really want to take it stoically, quietly lamenting the wrongs Islam has done to us and try not to notice the mosque being built a few blocks away from the location of Ground Zero?
It’s doubtful.

The mosque will be built eventually, but the world is watching to see what we do about it. Will we react with violence and protesting? Will our Christian communities continue to teach new generations that Islam is evil? Will we burn the Quran? Yes.

These things are going to continue happening until a generation of American parents can teach their children to learn and accept people of different races and faiths, but predicting when that will happen is as about as easy as predicting the weather in Indiana.

PRO

Sept. 11, 2001, is a day that will not soon be forgotten in the hearts of Americans for this is the day that we were attacked on our own ground and lost countless fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, sons, friends and heroes.

After the attacks on Sept. 11, we invaded Iraq to free the world and the Iraqis from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. This is a cause we have lost more than 4,000 military personnel for – saving and protecting Muslims. So why does the idea of a mosque being built near the location of Ground Zero bring so much enmity towards Muslims?

The US Constitution’s First Amendment gives Americans the right to freedom of religion, and nowhere in the First amendmentdoes the fine print read “except for Islam.”

This building will not be at Ground Zero, but two blocks away from the northeast corner of the World Trade Center. Also, it is less a mosque than it is an Islamic Community Center, much like the Christian institution, the Y. It is supposed to have a swimming pool and an arts center. This will be a 13-story building with the top two floors devoted to Muslim worship.

Countless American Muslims also lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. If you count ground where Muslims gather to pray as a mosque, then should Ground Zero itself count as a mosque each time a Muslim family has gone there to remember the lives of loved ones they lost in those tragic attacks?

Do we fear that these Muslims who will gather at 45 Park Place in New York will plan another attack on the United States? Since Sept. 11, Muslim Americans have lived more in fear of being victimized by terrorists, such as the case in the pipe-bomb explosion outside the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida.

People won’t even be able to see this building from Ground Zero. The location of this building is the site where a Burlington Coat Factory was abandoned in 2001. Some call it sacred ground; I call that ignorance. Are you aware what else is two blocks away from Ground Zero? A strip club. The fact of the matter is that the Islamic culture is looked down on by Americans everywhere. The mosque near Ground Zero is being protested just as the one in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Muslims are taking a stand against extremists and we are stopping them in their tracks with our hate. Take a good look at yourself, Americans, and do what our founding fathers would have done.

People of all faiths alike share a belief that their God is love. If your God is love, and your goal is to live a life in which you strive to be more like God, then stop the hate.

I leave you with a quote from MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann:
“The terrorists who destroyed the buildings from which you could only see 45 Park Place as a dot on the ground, wanted to force us to change our country to become more like the ones they knew. What better way could we honor the dead of the World Trade Center, than to do the terrorists’ heavy lifting for them? And do you think 45 Park Place is where this ends?”