For the past few weeks I’ve been keeping an eye on current events and items in the news in hopes of stumbling across an appropriate subject to write about. I wanted to pick a subject that was topical — a current event college students would at least have a vague awareness of and interest in — but also not too controversial.
After all, I’ve been warned several times already that no matter what I say here, there will be people who passionately disagree with me, and I will hear from them, so I didn’t want to come on too strong.
Unfortunately, I think I’m on the verge of delving into a discussion that’s likely to be very heated. The reason I chose my particular topic for this week is it’s an issue that I really don’t think should be that controversial at all. In fact, I can’t fathom how it’s generated so much debate thus far.
The issue I’m referring to is the question of building a mosque near the site of Ground Zero.
This issue can be further broken down into two separate questions: firstly, does the Muslim community have the right to do this, and secondly, is it appropriate for the Muslim community to do this?
In general, there seems to be less debate on the first of these two points. Basically, it seems pretty hard to argue for the idea that our capitalist nation can deny someone with the money and desire to purchase a piece of land, within the boundaries of the law, the right to do so.
So, as far as I can tell, there’s not much to argue about there.
The more sensitive question is whether it’s appropriate to build a mosque, a Muslim place of worship, so close to the site where Islamic extremists attacked our country and our ideals. It surprises me that so many people seem to find the idea of this offensive. The most common argument I’ve heard against it is that it’s “insensitive,” but I just can’t begin to see how that’s the case.
The American Muslim community should not and cannot be held responsible for acts perpetuated by extremists whose faith, while technically called by the same name as their own, is in all likelihood not recognizable to that of the American Muslims who want and will benefit from the building of this mosque.
Just as there have been throughout history, and are today, many Christians whose understanding of the label is completely different from that of most American Christians, the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11, do not subscribe to the same beliefs as the Muslim community here in America that has happily embraced our country and what it stands for.
Saying that it is “insensitive” to build a mosque near Ground Zero would seem to be trying to hold American Muslims accountable for people and events they really aren’t in any way associated with. There is nothing for them to be sensitive toward, not any moreso than the rest of America, because this was not their crime.
When you really get down to it, what is a mosque? It’s a place for worship, reflection, self-betterment. It’s a place of healing, renewal and coming together. Isn’t that what we all needed, and still need, in the face of the tragedy that occurred at Ground Zero? And I think nothing could be more fitting for the site of this hallowed ground.
Would those who oppose the building of this mosque have the same problem with the construction of a church next to the site of a former Holocaust concentration camp? A lot of Christians were responsible for horrors committed during the Holocaust, albeit Christians who subscribed to a morality that was repulsive to many others who identified themselves that way.
I think this situation is much the same.
I implore those against the building of this mosque to put themselves in the shoes of those who will benefit from it — people who are Muslim, yes, but people who are also fellow Americans. Hopefully then they’ll see it for what it really is: Not an insult, but a resource for their community that can do much more good than it could ever cause harm.