Newtie embraces evil.

[Econoline]

If the ignorant and Islamophobic right-wingers succeed in stopping this project, THAT will be a victory for the Islamic extremists who carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

It means they will have succeeded in convincing Americans that THEY (and not the vast majority of the 1½ billion Muslims in the world) represent the "true" face of Islam, which they do not. It means means they will have prevented the millions of American Muslims from being seen as just as legitimate a religious minority as, say, Jews, Buddhists, or Mormons. It means that their tiny handful of adherents (probably numbering in the thousands, maybe only hundreds) wield more power over American life than many much larger mainstream religious groups. And it means that THEIR vision of a worldwide war between Islam and western society will have been granted legitimacy by the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the United States.

[loCAtek]

[Andrew D]

There is an interesting article about this in The New Republic (23 September 2010 at pp. 7-8). It takes the form of an open letter from Yossi Klein Halevi (about whom I know nothing except that he has, as he says in the letter, a "deep Jewish attachment to the land of Israel" and that he issues the letter "[w]ith respect and blessings") to Imam Feisel (who is in charge of the whole proposed-Mosque project). The entire article is well worth reading; I quote here only the most pertinent paragraphs:

I believe that you intend to create a center of Islamic moderation near Ground Zero. And it is precisely for that reason that I am turning to you with a plea to reconsider your plans to build the center in its current form. Instead, I urge you to consider turning the site into a center for interfaith encounter. Build the mosque -- but do so together with a church and a synagogue and a center for common reflection for all three [Abrahamic] faiths [Judaism, Christianity, and Islam] and for those with no faith. Do this, Imam Feisal, not to surrender to your critics but to honor their pain, and, in the process, to honor Islam.

* * *

I am urging you to rise to your moment of spiritual greatness. You have dedicated your life to helping Islam enter the American mainstream. In its current form, though, your project will have the opposite effect. The way to ease Islam into the American mainstream is in the company of its fellow Abrahamic faiths. The great obstacle to Islam's reconciliation with the West is the adherence of even mainstream Muslims to a kind of medieval notion of interfaith relations. Muslim spokesmen often note how, during the Middle Ages, Islam provided protection for Christianity and Judaism. But that model -- tolerance under Islamic rule -- is inadequate for our time. The new interfaith theology affirsm the spiritual legitimacy of all three Abrahamic faiths. Whether or not we accept one another's faiths as theologically true, we can affirm them as devotionally true, that is, as worthy vessels for a God-centered life.

What will define a genuinely American Islam will be its ability to embrace this modern notion of interfaith relations. A 15-story Islamic center near Ground Zero will undermine that process. In the Muslim world, as you well know, architecture often buttresses triumphalist theology. Throughout the Holy Land, minarets deliberately tower over churches. However inadvertently, your current plan would be understood by large parts of the Muslim world as a victory over the West. Merely adding an interfaith component to the proposed Islamic center would not counter that distorted impression. Instead, it would likely reinforce the medieval theology of extending "protection" to Christianity and Judaism under the asupices of Islam. But an interfaith center in which the three Abrahamic faiths are given equal status would send the message that I believe you intend to convey.

There is not more appropriate place to assert the emergence of an American Islam than Ground Zero. And no American Muslim leader is better positioned to birth that process, dear Imam Feisal, than you.

I have at least a couple of problems with the letter. It asserts that "[T]he great obstacle to Islam's reconciliation with the West is the adherence of even mainstream Muslims to a kind of medieval notion of interfaith relations." It seems to me clear that that is a great obstacle. But "the great obstacle"? How about the (Judeo-Christian) West's "adherence ... to a [different] kind of medieval notion of interfaith relations"?

And although I understand (at least to some degree) the socio-politico-religious reasons for confining the suggestion of reconciliation to "all three Abrahamic faiths" and "those with no faith," it still leaves out those who do have faith, but not of an Abrahamic variety. What about Buddhists and Hindus and Jains and Shamanists and Taoists, etc.?

Still, it seems to me a position well worth thoughtful consideration by all of us, directly involved or not.

[Gob]

Digging up an old thread, I got this in a mail today..

I am perplexed that so many of my friends are against a mosque being built near Ground Zero. I think it should be the goal of every American
to be tolerant. The mosque should be allowed, in an effort to promote tolerance.

That is why I also propose, that two gay nightclubs be opened next door to the mosque thereby promoting tolerance within the mosque.

We could call the clubs "The Turban Cowboy" and "You Mecca Me So Hot".

Next door should be a butcher shop that specializes in pork and have an open barbeque with spare ribs as its daily special.

Across the street a very daring lingerie store called "Victoria Keeps Nothing Secret" with sexy mannequins in the window modeling the goods.

Next door to the lingerie shop, there would be room for an Adult Toy Shop (Koranal Knowledge?), its name in flashing neon lights, and on the other side a liquor store, maybe call it "Morehammered"?

If you agree in promoting tolerance and you think this is a good plan, pass it on.

What happened about the Mosque in the end?

[loCAtek]

The Mid-term elections are over, nobody cares;

Architecture helps 'Ground Zero mosque' gain public approval

11 November 2010 | By Elizabeth Hopkirk

The architect behind the so-called ’Ground Zero mosque’ has told how publishing images of the controversial scheme has won opponents over.

Michel Abboud of New York and Beirut-based practice Soma, said there had been a noticeable drop in protests in the five weeks since the renderings were released, 10 months after the scheme was first mentioned in the New York Times.

Speaking at Faith in the City, an Architecture Foundation event in London last night, he defended the project against an accusation from an Anglo-Palestinian architect in the audience that it had been “compromised by a total failure of PR in the US”.

But he admitted the developer, Soho Properties, had not expected the level of hostility it had attracted and had been “caught off guard”, refusing to engage with the media until it had prepared a PR strategy.

The $120 million Park 51 Islamic community centre is two and a half blocks from the former World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. It will replace a furniture factory damaged in the 9/11 attacks which is currently being used as a mosque.

The new building would have a mosque in the basement beneath 18 storeys of public facilities including a swimming pool, basketball court, theatre, restaurant, offices and a child care centre.

Abboud, who is a Catholic, said the centre’s “Islamic theme” was cultural rather than religious. He gave a detailed presentation on the design which features a lattice of Islamic-inspired patterns which allows light to flood into the interior.

Asked if it would have been so controversial if it had looked like Pizza Hut he said: “Yes, because the controversy began before we published he pictures. What ignited the polemic even more was there were no pictures. You always fear what you don’t see. Since the pictures were published we have noticed – through responses to the PR company and so on – that a lot more people can understand it now.”

He said he was certain the project – which still needs planning and funding – would be built.

[tyro]

Just imagine if there had been mosques located at the top of both Twin Towers, how things might have been different.

[Sue U]

Just imagine if there had been mosques located at the top of both Twin Towers, how things might have been different.

Well, it probably would have been damn hard to hear the muezzin.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Just imagine if there had been mosques located at the top of both Twin Towers, how things might have been different.

Sounds like a plan for every important building in the USA.

And the heck with having it two blocks away, put it right next to one of the reflecting pools. Better to guard the Freedom Tower (or whatever they plan on calling it now).