Few times has PMB been so embarrassed for his country as now, in light of the rigorous and misguided opposition to plans to build a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero in New York City.
Those in opposition to the building plans are claiming that a mosque and Islamic center built near Ground Zero would be an affront to the victims of 9-11, a breach of the sanctity of the tragic site, and would signify capitulation to proponents of radical Islam.
Few on either side of the issue would openly admit that they can identify no difference between what is called 'radical Islam,' 'Islamofacism,' 'Al-Quaidaism,' 'Islamic terrorism,' etc. and the peaceful, 'mainstream' practice of Islam in places all over the world, including New York. Most reasonable people would consider the simple equation of the practice of Islam with terrorism a straightforwardly bigoted attitude. Nonetheless, the rapid and unthinking and direct association of Islam in general, by way of the image of the mosque, and the radical Islamic terrorism of 9-11, underpins the entirety of the position against building a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero. If the simple ontological status 'Muslim' is rendered equivalent to 'terrorism,' our attitude problem at home is as potentially threatening to the American way of life as is any danger abroad.
One could argue that even the mere evocation of anything loosely 'Muslim' is offensive at Ground Zero, given what's happened there, even if there is no explicit or admitted equivalency being produced between Muslim Americans in New York and 9-11 terrorists. But as long as we indulge that paranoia, we again threaten to undermine some of the very basic freedoms that make America what it is.
The building of a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero would be the ultimate symbol of American endurance, the ultimate sign of America prevailing over terrorism, and the ultimate slap in the face to radical Islamic terrorist groups who would like nothing more than for Americans to turn against our own pluralist values and become the monster they portray us as.
When terrorist struck down the twin towers on 9-11, they thought they had struck at the symbolic heart of America, the pillars of America as world financial center. Little did they know that America is best exemplified by its pluralism, tolerance, and polyvocality: by the faces you can still see climbing on and off the World Trade Center Subway stop and walking along Wall St. and Vesey St. where the towers used to be. Erecting a mosque and whatever else serves the community there would demonstrate that America is still the diverse and tolerant community that's made it great. PMB can think of few things that would constitute sweeter poetic justice than the building of a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero.
The ultimate shame, however, is the politicizing by people who have nothing to do with New York, on a national level, of these building plans, along with the childish fear and unenlightened contempt exhibited by those opposed. To raise a political fuss over the wholly legal and appropriate building of the planned Islamic community facilities in their planned location is to take a hack at the most important pillar that Americans ever built: the pluralist tradition.
