“Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”
“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,” Obama
If you haven’t heard the latest controversy in the US lemme get you uploaded. It all boils down to this; Sharif El-Gamal, 37, developer and Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf, an honoured and respected moderate Muslim leader want to build a religious and cultural centre called Park51, two blocks away from Ground Zero where 9/11 occurred. Park51 will be a community centre housing a mosque, arts, culture and a 9/11 memorial as well as other things. This is not a secret mosque but in fact this will be the most accessible mosque in the United States, to demonstrate to Americans and the world the true heart of the Islam religion. Of course anti-Muslim individuals as well as organizations would like nothing more than to see this plan fall apart before it even gets started. I bet the majority of the critics have not taken an in-depth look at the proposal of Mr. El-Gamal. All they hear and read is “Mosque at Ground Zero” as put out by Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA). Of course a church or a synagogue wouldn’t meet these obstacles.
First of all let’s get it clear. New York already has mosques. Matter of a fact just four blocks away from Ground Zero there’s the 40 years old mosque, Masjid Manhattan. Secondly you cannot see the community centre from Ground Zero, leave alone the mosque. Some argue that it is about respect for the sacredness of Ground Zero. Muslims died too on 9/11 and I can not find a reason to think that the developers of the mosque did not consider this before presenting their plans to the public. Soho Properties developer and project backer Sharif El-Gamal is an intelligent man; therefore I know he must have thoroughly looked through things before stepping to the plate. There are even people arguing a mosque will F-up the scenery of the era. Those critics have probably never visited Down-town Manhattan or they are wilful blind. I wonder what their opinion is on the strip club and bars just blocks away from Ground Zero.
Obama’s first comment was dead on. Although I feel like he could have emphasis more on the suffering of the victim’s families. The following day the President tried to clear any misunderstanding to say “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about“. Nevertheless the media caught on the remark and run with it. Since many media are going broke, keeping a story around no matter how absurd the story is seems to be the fashion. To this day many conservatives believe Obama is a Muslim. I was aw-struck by the fact that the media failed to throw the facts in their face. During the election Obama was charged of having a racist pastor for 20 years. In a debate with Hilary Clinton he was forced to backstab his pastor because of the pastor’s private views of America. When that was settled many Americans, mostly concervatives believed Obama was a fanatical Muslim, wanted to impose the Sharia into the American society. Now you tell me, what kind of a devoted Muslim has a pastor? Or what kind of a devoted church goer is an Islamic? You see how far-fetched this argument gets. It is insane. Many Americans are afraid of Muslims and their actions speaks volumes. They have been misinformed and manipulated by those that want to rule the people through fear.
Now I do know that some people are still hurt and traumatized by 9/11 and do not want to hear that “not all Muslims are terrorists”. I understand the sentiment and maybe as for myself I would have picked another site. However the facts which cannot be disputed by the opposition are that the developers are in their right and are not breaking any law. Law makers, who we trust to uphold the law, are overlooking the constitution to push their own agenda. They are purposely misleading the people by fuelling the anger of the people who opposed the mosque with unfounded facts. That is not a smear campaign but that is evil politics. Not only is it evil, but siding with the misguided against good intentioned moderate Muslims, they are endangering the troops on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the western world really wants to preach peace and religion freedom for all, then they must practice what they preach and not only when it is convenient.