E-mail a Friend

You are sending:
Muslims opposed to mosque project enter the fray

Your Email:

Friend's Email:

Note: (optional)

Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/58984/full/58984/muslims-opposed-to-mosque-project-enter-the-fray/ Muslims opposed to mosque project enter the fray Thursday, August 19, 2010 | by rachel zoll American Muslims who support the proposed mosque and Islamic center near ground zero are facing skeptics within their own faith — those who argue that the project is insensitive to Sept. 11 victims and needlessly provocative at a time when Muslims are pressing for wider acceptance in the United States. <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 216px;"><img alt="USap mosque" class="left" height="241" src="/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/s08_20_10/USap mosque.jpg" title="Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf addresses a May 25 community meeting on the proposed mosque. photo/ap/craig ruttle" width="216" /> <div class="caption">Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf addresses a May 25 community meeting on the proposed mosque. photo/ap/craig ruttle</div> </div> “For most Americans, 9/11 remains as an open wound, and anything associated with Islam, even for Americans who want to understand Islam — to have an Islamic center with so much publicity is like rubbing salt in open wounds,” said Akbar Ahmed, professor of Islamic studies at American University, a former Pakistani ambassador to Britain and author of “Journey Into America, The Challenge of Islam.” He said the space should include a synagogue and a church so it will be truly interfaith. Abdul Cader Asmal, past president of the Islamic Council of New England, an umbrella group for more than 15 Islamic centers, said some opponents of the $100 million, 13-story project are indeed anti-Muslim. But he said many Americans have genuine, understandable questions about Islam and extremism. In light of those fears, and the opposition of many relatives of 9/11 victims, Asmal said organizers should dramatically scale back the project to just a simple mosque, despite their legal right to construct what they want. “Winning in the court of law is not going to help improve the image of Muslims nationwide,” said Asmal, a Massachusetts physician. “You have to win the hearts and minds of the ordinary American people.” The center’s leaders, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan, have a long record of interfaith outreach in New York and beyond. They insist the center will be a voice for moderate Islam and will welcome people of all religions. Supporters are outraged that critics suspect the couple of an extremist agenda. The site, two blocks from where the World Trade Center stood, will include a pool, gym and 500-seat auditorium for cultural events for the general public, along with a mosque and a 9/11 memorial. Rauf is now traveling overseas on his latest speaking tour for the State Department. Rauf has come under criticism for having friends who are radical Islamists. But Yahoo’s news blog, the Upshot, reported that Rauf “was considered moderate enough during the Bush years to lecture FBI agents about Islam” in 2003. The Upshot also noted that the Bush administration sent Rauf on several speaking tours in the Middle East, and Rauf attended a U.S.-Islamic world forum with close Bush adviser and then-Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes. Rauf is quoted as telling a radio station he would not denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization, the Upshot reported. And in September 2001, Rauf told “60 Minutes, “I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.” However, Rauf’s involvement in the proposed mosque is only a small reason for the objections against it. In fact, 68 percent of New Yorkers in one recent poll said the Constitution protects the building of the Muslim center even if they personally disapprove of it. But a CNN/Opinion Research poll released last week found that the country as a whole is strongly opposed to the project, with nearly 70 percent of Americans against it and 29 percent in favor. Rauf’s decision to remain overseas without making a statement on the controversy also has caused some frustration. “The total absence of Feisal Rauf has a ‘Where’s Waldo’ quality that is maddening in itself,” Muslim writer Aziz Poonawalla, who supports the center, told the blog Ordinary-Gentlemen.com. “I’m quite capable of defending Rauf against some of the accusations against him, but am not inclined to carry his water for him while he gallivants about the globe.” Beyond misgivings about the location, some American Muslims have raised concerns about what the mosque could become after Rauf and Khan retire and inevitably turn the center over to new leadership. Like houses of worship in all faiths, Islamic centers can change over time depending on the worldviews of congregants and the imams who lead them. Asra Nomani, author of “Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam,” said American Muslims have not fully confronted extremism in Islam, which makes her worried that any mosque has the potential to become a haven for those with rigid views. “Yes, there is prejudice against Muslims in the modern day, but also Muslims in the modern day have an extremist problem,” said Nomani, who backs the idea of the mosque in principle but believes the feelings of families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks should trump the plan. Few American Muslims who lost relatives in the terrorist strikes have spoken out, but those who have are also divided. Talat Hamdani, a Muslim whose son Salman, a New York police cadet and emergency medical technician, was killed on Sept. 11, supports the proposal. “I’m not fighting for a mosque. I’m fighting for my rights,” she said. By contrast, Neda Bolourchi of Los Angeles, a native of Iran whose mother was on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, opposes the plan. “I fear that over time, it will cultivate a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith, embracing those who share such beliefs and hating those who do not,” she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. “To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must ask: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother’s grave, and let her rest.” Related: <a href="/article/full/58972/imam-raufs-writings-on-israel-are-cause-for-concern">Imam Rauf’s writings on Israel are cause for concern</a> <a href="/article/full/58971/call-him-naive-but-imam-rauf-is-a-man-of-peace">Call him naive, but Imam Rauf is a man of peace</a>

Please enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below:

E-mail a Friend

Subscribe to: