By Maeve Dwyer
Sharif-El- Gamal has continued on with plans to build the 15-story community center Park51 despite the harsh criticism the project generated this fall. The media storm erupting over the 'mosque at Ground Zero' controversy could not have been missed by anyone even slightly tuned into the news. Parties on both sides of the debate were impassioned and to some extent guilty a hurling unnecessarily harsh insults at the opposing view, whether they be generalizing anyone with slight misgivings about Park51 as possessed by an Islamaphobia or blatantly declaring Park51 to be a 'victory mosque' built by Muslims who could barely be differentiated from the perpetrators of 9/11. Politicians and public figures across the country came out with their views on the matter, desperately trying to find a middle ground least likely to upset a significant number of people (unless of course they thrive off of angering the left in which case a present may just as well have dropped into their laps). The controversy brought the actual building Islamaphobia of the post- 9/11 United States into the open, trying to hide hate and ignorance behind a plea for 'tact'. Yet, after the November elections passed, Park51 largely disappeared from the news cycle almost as quickly as the public outrage set in.
However, more recently, the planned community center two blocks away from Ground Zero once again has started receiving snippets of media attention (and renewed criticism). Starting November 22, reports started circulating that Park51 had applied for a $5 million 9/11 rebuilding grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Council. According to NY Observer, Gamal says he is just trying different funding opportunities. The money would be directed toward violence prevention, education, and arts programming. Created hundred of construction jobs in the process and 150 permanent jobs once the projects is completed. This time around the arguments against Park51 have taken a different tone. Maybe this has to do with the absence of an upcoming election or possibly it's just a matter of time. Either way, though some still condemn the project as a whole, critics have come to accept Park51 but, like the NY Observer writer, question whether this most recent request has crossed a line.
In what I found to be a surprisingly tame blog for Fox News Rabbi Brad Hirschfield admitted Park51 was more than a matter of faith, even declaring Park51 was not "an affront to the memory of those murdered on 9/11" as New York Representative Peter King contended. Instead, he believes it's a matter not of whether Park51 should be built, but how they should be built. This is a fair point to make, as long as the how remains the same for Muslims as it is for Christians. Even more worth thinking about is the Park51 claim to almost a third of the 9/11 rebuilding grants totaling only $17 million dollars. According to the The Telegraph, the Downtown Development Authority only recommended Park51 request $100,000 to $1 million.
In order for a religious organization to receive grant money from the 9/11 rebuilding fund the organization must use the money for, "a facility or a portion of a facility that is dedicated to non-religious activities or uses". For reasons states earlier in this post, domestic violence, art, etc, Park51 meets this qualification. Still, publications like OA Online, and like-minding people, still believe the funds for Park51 should come from locally raised funds, not the national taxpayers. Somehow, I don't see the suggestion being the same for a Christian organization.
The Islam community behind Park51 has started doing the very thing other Americans have been complaining they have not been doing; condemning radical Islam and taking proactive steps to combat it. Imam Feisal Abdul Rau on December 7 announced the formation of the Cordova Movement to improve understanding and build trust within a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. The PR Newswire quoted Rau as saying, "We must retake the discourse among religions and cultures from the hands of the extremists around the world who benefit from hatred and violence".
Last week the Jewish community of New York took a major step to embrace the Islamic community of New York and the Park51 controversy. At a conference hosted by Rabbis for Human Rights , attended by about 250 people, invited Cordoba House Founder Daisy Khan to speak, the Jewish Week reported. Khan told the gathered crowd, "You understood our pain; you fought a struggle for acceptance". The overarching theme pushed by the organizers addressed the idea that Jews have not done enough to stand up for the Muslim community. Maybe all of us need these conferences, having not done our parts to defend the citizens of our country under attack.
I think its great that the Jewish Community has provided solidarity for the Muslim Community. Not only is this fantastic support for the specific issue of the Park51 community center, but it also addresses the long-standing tension between Jews and Muslims. This is wonderfully progressive. In his book "The Post-American World," Fareed Zakaria says that most Muslims are moderate and that the radical community represents a much smaller, but much louder section. Moderate members of the community who are for peaceful existence of all religions--like the Rabbis for Human Rights--need to be more vocal to counteract the images and statements that have flooded the minds of the American populace and created this awful stereotype of Muslims. Only through activism and solidarity can we overcome such hostility and harsh, negative reactions.
ReplyDelete-Michelle Consorte