So I write on the 9th anniversary of 9/11. I’ve not been especially active here for a number of reasons but I thought that, as this community centre thing along with the Qu’ran burning controversy was climaxing, I’d weigh in.
Anyone who’s read other posts in this blog will not be surprised to learn that I feel that if no further buildings with a religious purpose were built anywhere in the world, I’d most likely rejoice. However, this has no specific relationship to Islam, just religion.
What I have to say is, though, that the US constitution was written for a reason and that those who performed the 9/11 attacks were neither American (unlike those Muslims who would mainly seek to use the building) nor part of the Islam practised by the Muslims involved. In fact, only a miniscule proportion of Muslims even think that Al Qaeda are in the smallest way justified in their actions.
I fail to see how these indisputable facts could in any way lead you to even get slightly annoyed by the building of a prayer centre in the NYC location proposed. To just deepen the logic, we all know that many Muslims were killed by terrorists in the twin towers and that Al Qaeda kills Muslims as much as any other creed. If you want to lump in the Taliban with Al Qaeda (a significant simplification) then the Taliban have probably butchered more of their fellow Afghan Muslims (plus Al Qaeda doing the same in Iraq) than several 9/11s combined.
So, given that human beings of all creeds, colours and religions have suffered grievously at the hand of the frankly insane clique known as Al Qaeda, how on earth can there be a problem with this centre just because Al Qaeda claim that their own interpretation of the book that these organisers follow (but in no way share) is the correct one? If any one of these Muslims seeking to build this centre were to walk into an Al Qaeda base, they’d be just a likely to be slaughtered as would George Bush. This is simply the truth and if anyone cannot see this, they need to read more.
The book-burning fiasco was, of course, yet another example of how completely ill-informed idiots, who seem also to be fundamentalists (branding Islam evil – why? because it’s not Christian?) can skew debates in the US further and further away from any semblance of fact. I truly applaud Obama with how he has scolded this tosser and continues to try to pull the debate away from generalised anti-Islamic claptrap.
It’s almost funny how much Islam actually has in common with Judaism and Christianity. In fact, many of their customs are in some way one that Judaism and Christianity did follow but almost “forgot” about. Certainly, there’s a fair bit of sense in parts of it. I think it’s also fair to say that there’s nothing like a settled approach to the more headline-catching parts of Islam (e.g. Hijab or Women’s place in society) and trying to tar the very fragmented Islamic faith with a single brush is contrary to fact and counterproductive.
If all three faiths would “get” each other and realise their vast swathes of common ground, we could all see peace a lot sooner.
