Eng105
06/14/2011
Should The Islamic Cultural Center Be Built Next To The Ground Zero?
The Lower Manhattan Extension remains to be the busiest spot on the globe for a couple of centuries. A home for hundreds of operating businesses, New York City’s financial district represents a strategic center of the world managed by IT geniuses, Investment Banking giants and other brilliant minds that push and pull the necessary buttons to control a massive and complicated mechanism called “The Global Economy” from their downtown offices. Consuming the whole city, contagious rush of the east coast misses only one place – The Ground Zero, a grave for thousands of people including around 300 Muslims, killed by Islamic terrorist group attack on September 11, 2001. In almost 10 years after the attack, the proposed construction of Islamic Center next to the American nation’s tragedy location became the heart of controversy that started with a small group of anti-Muslim activists who suggested the proposal was a scheme used by anti-American Muslims to conquer the site of the 9/11 attacks (Steve Rendall, Oct. 2010). However, according to the Community Center’s official web-site, the key points of the opponents turned out to be false: “Inspired by Islamic values and Muslim heritage, Park51 will weave the Muslim-American identity into the multicultural fabric of the United States. We will foster cooperation and understanding between people of all faiths and backgrounds through relevant programs and initiatives” (Park51 Community Center Official Web-site, June 2011). The project is financed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, an American Muslim who works in fields of interfaith outreach and tolerance (Steve Rendall, Oct. 2010). Even though the construction plan does not have any connection to Islamic extremists group, the public debates over the issue continue to grow. While the Muslim worship services being regularly held a feet away from Pentagon site of 9/11 attack, the opponents of the construction are mostly concerned about the location chosen for a mosque building area. Relating the attack organization to Muslim extremists group, the opponents of the building plan ask Islam World to pay the respect and tolerance towards victims’ families and the whole American nation. Jim Riches, the former deputy chief of FDNY says: "They can have their mosque, but have it somewhere else. I don't want it overlooking the site where my son was murdered that day by 19 Muslim terrorists"(Transcript, Aug. 2010) As the statement gains a significant amount of supporters, the individuals that favor the idea of the proposed construction calls public not to draw the entire Islam followers with the broad brush. The construction plan found it supporters in civic group representatives. “Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here”, says Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York (Transcript, Aug. 2010). While the politicians focus their points on the legal right for the plan realization, the representatives of the Muslim Community suggest to look beyond the stigma, referring the 9/11 attack to “all of ours tragedy”. Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says that it was unfair to associate the planned community center or all Muslims with the September, 2011 events (Anne Bernard, Sept. 2010).
However, the challengers of the construction idea claim themselves to be free from wrong beliefs and stereotypes and opened to any peaceful religious views. Interestingly enough that the opponents recognize the ideological distinction between two religious views, pointing out that only a word “Islam” ties up two different approaches together. Thus, the building of the Islamic Cultural Center in two blocks away from Ground Zero will serve as a monument of Muslim extremists’ victory over the Western World, providing the example from World History where Muslim victors built a mosque on the ruins of a sacked church, in honor of the Islamic conquest of Spain (Steve Rendall, Oct. 2010). However, the defenders of the proposed plan express the strong worry in growing confusion about the true Islam concepts and intentions, underlying the possibility of inevitable consequences caused by the wrong stereotype. From that perspective, the compliance with the construction will open the new chapter of American History where people can live and let die the disaster that happened years ago.
Nevertheless, the provided point of view does not seem to be persuasive for many individuals. In reverse, the compliance with the construction can lead to the complications in relationships between West and Muslim Worlds. Dr. Gamal Abd Al-Gawad, director of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Egypt, stated that the mosque's location would "remind Americans of what Muslims did on 9/11 and it's not good for Muslims and Islam to be in the heart of such a controversy" (The Trustworthy Encyclopedia, Feb.2011). Explaining the public reaction by the lack of knowledge in Islam ideological aspects, a Columbia citizen, Rezwan Islam states that the Islamic Cultural Center will serve as a promotion of the general understanding of Muslim culture. “Prohibiting the Islamic center in Manhattan might fuel anti-American sentiment in predominantly Muslim countries, which terrorist organizations might use to their advantage”, he adds (Will Guldin, Aug. 2010).
To conclude, the controversy around the Islamic Cultural Center Construction has been observed from two different approaches: political and cultural, where the arguments from the both sides failed to explain should the question be regarded from legal or human rights perspective. As the result, the essence of the issue remains unclear and the public confusion continues to grow. As the question about the true purpose and nature of Islamic Cultural center is being intensively discussed and opposed, the reality remains to stay behind the curtains; 2,976 victims of different ethnicities, religious beliefs, occupations and backgrounds have one thing in common – Ground Zero, the place where their lives where taken (Reference, Education and News, June 2011). The 9/11 event enfolded the whole world, inspiring the fear and uncertainty about tomorrow in human consciousness. Considering the power of terroristic attack influence on the entire population, the real purpose of the Cultural Center construction created by the Steve Rendall, Oct. 2010religious unit seems to be useless and irrelevant, as the peaceful demographic entity ends up fighting against themselves. At the times, when the whole world is suddenly watching two planes crushing into the skyscrapers, a public separation does not serve as a good survival plan.