Lately, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the concept of building a Cordoba mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center towers in New York City. As an American, my first response was to be outraged. But, in all actuality, I think the entire issue has been blown way out of proportion.
After sitting down and learning more about the issue, I have found myself wondering why everyone is so worked up about it.
First of all, the building will not just be a place of worship. It's a community center that will contain a mosque. However, the mosque aspect of the plans seems to be overshadowing the fact that the building will also contain fitness facilities, an auditorium, a restaurant and a library. Don’t get me wrong, I am not in favor of a mosque being built on sacred ground, but, clearly, that’s not what’s happening in this case.
Also, if you look at a map that shows the proposed site of the Park51 project, you will see that it’s a good two blocks from where the terrorist attacks took place. Believe me, it would be an entirely different story if this facility were being built on the same tract of land where the World Trade Center once stood. Upon further examination, it’s easy to see that there are two churches and a chapel within that same distance from Ground Zero. Obviously, it’s not a matter of precedence to build a center for worship in this particular vicinity.
While many argue that erecting a 15-story community center that contains a Muslim mosque that close to the site where nearly 3,000 people were killed, is insensitive – not only to families of the victims, but to the entire population of the United States – those people need to realize that the building proposal was not made to dishonor the memory of those who were killed by Islamic terrorists. Besides, we can’t punish an entire religion for an attack that only a handful of extremists carried out. That’s not fair. Not to mention, real estate in downtown Manhattan is hard enough to come by as it is without our opposition.
A long-time tradition of Muslim supremacists has been to construct mosques adjacent to or upon other groups’ holy and sacred grounds.
At the same time, those who have made the proposal need to respect the fact that the site where the World Trade Center towers once stood, though not necessarily a holy site, has become, in a sense, hallowed ground, what with all those who perished just over nine years ago. Ergo, it should be respected as such. With that, the opposition the developers are encountering has nothing to do with suppressing religion or infracting upon the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Sure, I understand that it could be interpreted as such, but, obviously, that is not the case here.
But, what really gets my goat is the prominent role this controversy has taken in our lives. We have people dying in Afghanistan and Iraq while serving our country, a massive oil spill recovery effort taking place in the Gulf and an economy that is still in the process of rebounding from a terrible recession. There’s just so many other things that should be taking front and center at the moment. Yet, what people are choosing to focus their time and effort on is trying to prevent a building from being erected in New York City. Something just isn’t right here.
Jennie Oemig
Editor
Arcadia News-Leader
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