September 11 in 2010: The Day of Frustrations

by Adrienn Kácsor
NEW YORK, Sept. 11 -

A lot of screaming and shouting what mostly characterized the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Whole day's atmosphere became embodied by the debate over the planned Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, as the Annual Commemoration Ceremony was followed by rallies for and against the mosque.

This year's September 11 was not only about commemorations and ceremonies, but rather about angry protests, as one might expect.

During last week, there had been several appeals to the public to respect the sensitivity of 9/11. Still, some protesters armed with placards became already visible during the Official Commemoration Ceremony held at Zuccotti Park in the morning.

However, the tensions peaked during the afternoon, as the rallies had previously been announced to 2PM. Both sides held their own protest at the same time, but on the opposite ends of Park Place.

The two blocks distance plus the numerous cordons and policemen proved to be sufficient to subdue the protesters. No physical violence occurred on Saturday, but even more yelling and arguing – not only about the legacy of the “Ground Zero Mosque” (just as everyone calls the Islamic Cultural Center), but mainly about the meaning of American identity, democracy and religious freedom.

“We must respond to the provocation” - says Sharon Eolis, one organizer of the rally in support the mosque. “We are here to remember as well, to protect the memory of those people who were killed 9 years ago. We do not want to be disrespectful of their memories, but we must stand clearly against the Tea Party to protect our constitutional rights”.

Thousands of people joined the demonstration organized by Sharon and her friends on Broadway, on the west side of City Hall Park, with placards telling to “Stop the racist war against Muslim people” and “Islam NOT EQUAL to War”. For most of them, the scandal of the Ground Zero Mosque has become a clear political question about rights, as well as a strong protest against the growing islamophobia of the American society that Muslims could recently identify.

Meanwhile, a crowd of several hundreds of opponents of the mosque gathered around the corner of West Broadway and Park Place -there seemed to be less people than two blocks away. Most of them were holding American flags in their hands.

“Simply do not build the mosque here, that would be absolutely insensitive toward the many families, who lost one of their lovers during the terrorist attacks. I mean, this is the place where almost 3 thousands Americans were killed. People died here as their bodies were burnt. ” - says David, 55-year-old.

On both sides, the same arguments had been repeated constantly during the last few weeks, as the American media has been endlessly focused on the debate over the mosque. On one side, one would argue that it would be absolutely insensitive toward “Americans” to build an Islamic Cultural Center just two blocks away from the former World Trade Center – this point of view is similar to the terminology used by the Conservatives.

On the other side, people fear losing the essence of the American democracy, in the name of religious freedom that should be guaranteed for everyone – the point which was frequently emphasized by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and President Barack Obama as well. In this sense, the intense public discussion also turned into a political question between Republicans and Conservatives.

On Saturday, September 11, almost everyone, who took part in one of the protests, expressed strong opinion or feelings about the mosque and the related topics. It seemed that after weeks of ceaseless discussions, it was still more essential for thousands of New Yorkers to speak out their frustrations, rather than to commemorate silently. However, everyone asked was fully aware that it might have been insensitive on the day of 9/11.

There were a group of youngsters, inside the cordons on West Broadway, all of them in their twenties, who were not trying to state loudly their point of view. Instead, 6 or 7 of them did meditation in the middle of the shouting crowd.

“Shamata or Calm Abiding is the type of meditation that is possible to do in such a noise” - says Patrick Groneman, the most well- trained 'meditator' from the group. “We do not want to say opinion about the mosque. We are here just to be present here, to get experience here and to silently show that we are present and we commemorate today, instead of the many frustrations.”

Around 5PM, Patrick and his friends finished their 2- hour-long meditation and were about to leave the protest. A few minutes later the thousands of people did the same.

10 minutes after 5PM the shouting and yelling crowd calmed down, as New Yorkers started to leave the surrounding of Ground Zero to get home.