I remember cringing at the sound of
an airplane, imagining my school as a target and struggling to sleep at night,
worried about more nightmares of collapsing buildings. But my fears never
materialized. Terrorism never claimed the life of anyone I knew. For
Muslim-Americans in New York and around the nation after the September 11th
attacks, fears did materialize. According to The Council on American Islamic
Relations, there have been over 3,000 cases of Islamaphobic hate crime in the
United States since 9/11/01. And these attacks have not just been in southern
red states. The largest percentage of any state (20%) occurred in California.
10% in New York. 7% in Florida. 5% each in Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio. As for college campuses, some of the
most visceral attacks and hate crimes have taken place at academic institutions
ranging from Yale University, where Muslims students and teachers received
violent and personalized death threats to San Jose State University where
graffiti in bathrooms claimed all Muslims on campus would be shot dead.
When the so-called “Ground Zero”
mosque (ironic because it is not a mosque nor very close to Ground Zero) debate
came about in early 2011, another outlet was established for Americans to voice
their Islamaphobia. My own grandfather had the nerve to call the construction
of the Islamic center 3 blocks from Ground Zero “insensitive”. And his words
were light compared to those of many.
While there are porn shops closer
to Ground Zero in the claustrophobic streets of Lower Manhattan, the creation
of an Islamic Center presented another opportunity for an expression of Islamaphobia
in the Western world. Sure- dozens of 9/11 victims were Muslims and the
building would not even be visible from the World Trade Center sight. Yet the
majority of Americans and New York City residents were persuaded to oppose
building the mosque.
Did people really understand what
exactly was being proposed? Do they still not really understand what is being
built? The center is intended to serve as a platform for multi-faith dialogue,
even to provide refuge to 9/11 victim’s families of all faiths, many of who are
still suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (as 64,000 New Yorkers were
diagnosed). The Islamic center has always had plans to include a memorial to
9/11 victims! Not to mention, a 500-seat auditorium, an art studio, a childcare
area, a performing arts center, a bookstore, a culinary school, a fitness
center, and a food court.
An Islamic center built in a
community that would use it (Lower Manhattan is home to thousands of
Muslim-Americans) replacing a Burlington Coat Factory damaged by the 9/11
attacks, in no way threatens Americans or as many have had the balls to argue,
celebrates the September 11th attacks. It provides an
architecturally unique structure to a Lower Manhattan stuffed with far too many
ugly, grey buildings. It creates a center for something other than 9 to 5
shifts of cubicle-structured-stress. As one of the many residents of the
beautiful city of New York, I’ve never been much of a fan of lower Manhattan.
When the twin towers stood as a marvel to my childhood eyes, there was a
terrific outdoor area outside at their base that provided my mother a great
place to take my brother and I. Since 9/11, we have had little reason to visit
the area. While an Islamic center will likely fail to change this reality,
putting a uniquely designed building in the neighborhood with a basketball
court, swimming pool and beautiful 9/11 memorial, all inside and open to the
public, it can’t hurt the neighborhoods appeal.
If you ask me, there is simply no
concrete reason to oppose the center. When Mayor Bloomberg was approached by a
Marine wanting to talk to him about the Islamic center in a Manhattan
restaurant earlier this year, he thought he was going to be told why it
shouldn’t be built. Instead, the Marine said what he was fighting in Iraq for
was freedom, not fear. He told the mayor that the center should be built
because it can stand as a symbol of our constitution and what we believe in as
a nation.
Colleen Kelley, who lost her
brother William on 9/11, says, the "irony in the debate over the section
of the building that would house a mosque is that one might assume that God
(the same God to Jews-Christians-Muslims) would be pleased with any type of
effort that involves prayer and service to others." Orlando Rodriguez and
Phyllis Schaefer Rodriguez, whose son died in the attack, say they
"support the building of the Islamic community center in lower
Manhattan" and "feel that it would honor our son and other
victims". Herb Ouida, whose son Todd died, said: "To say that we're
going to condemn a religion and castigate a billion people in the world because
they're Muslims, to say that they shouldn't have the ability to pray near the
World Trade Center—I don't think that's going to bring people together and
cross the divide." Herb Ouida, whose son Todd died, said: "To say
that we're going to condemn a religion and castigate a billion people in the
world because they're Muslims, to say that they shouldn't have the ability to
pray near the World Trade Center—I don't think that's going to bring people
together and cross the divide. Donna O'Connor, whose pregnant daughter died on
9/11, expressed the opinion that "This building will serve as an emblem
for the rest of the world that Americans ... recognize that the evil acts of a
few must never damn the innocent."
More people died on September 11th, 2001 than attend Colorado College. Isn't the best way to honor their lives to protect the values the terrorists who killed them hated so vehemently? Freedom should always include freedom of religion in the United States and worldwide.
Just like our President, I am glad
the Islamic Center is being built. Americans need to put Islamaphobia behind
them, and once the community begins to embrace this seemingly wonderful Islamic
center, perhaps many can finally do so.
WikiPedia, CityLimits.org,
The Richmond Times Dispatch, The New York Post and The New York Times all
served as sources for this article.
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