Last week, Alan and I had a spirited discussion on the construction of a mosque/Islamic center near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.
Alan’s position, if I may mischaracterize it, was that it is legal to build it, the government should not stop any religious institution from building on private property, and in any case, the Muslims who would worship and study at Cordoba House should not be tarred with the same brush of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda.
My position is that while the government should not stop the construction, and it should be legal for the construction to continue, out of a sense of decency, sensitivity, taste and respect, one should not place a symbol of terrible violence at the scene of that violence. Symbols are complicated, and just as a Christian church now means love, child abuse, salvation, and the Crusades, all in one, so does a mosque (or Islamic prayer center) now mean terrorism and 9/11, in addition to charity, prayer, and peace.
Mayor Bloomberg has had his say on the project moving forward. I’d like to add another voice: Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, who spoke on NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday. I agree with just about everything he says here, and he says it perhaps better than I. The transcript is below, or listen to the interview at the link.
INSKEEP: How has the ADL’s position evolved on this issue?
Mr. ABRAHAM FOXMAN (National Director, Anti-Defamation League): I’m not aware that it’s involved. The ADL opposes bigotry, prejudice, Islamophobia. We continue to do so.
INSKEEP: I guess what I mean is that initially the ADL was expressing concern about the critics of this Islamic center and now the ADL has said that you wish that the Islamic center should be moved somewhere else.
Mr. FOXMAN: Well, no. Again, we will still continue to be critical about critics of the center who are critics from a perspective of bigotry and racism and Islamophobia. The position that we’ve articulated last week was one that deals with location and sensitivity.
We didn’t even say you must, you should, you have to. We basically said that we believe that in this place of tragedy and pain and anguish maybe the best thing would be is if people would step back and consider that if you want to heal, the best way to heal is not to do it in your face. And if the people who you reach out to, those who had suffered the most say please don’t do it in our cemetery, not to do it.
INSKEEP: What about this specific building or its specific location or its specific design makes it seem a little too in your face?
Mr. FOXMAN: Well, it I don’t know about the design. I don’t know about the for me it’s similar to a position that the Jewish community took, oh, about 15, 20 years ago when there was an effort by the Carmelite nuns to build a convent in or around Auschwitz. And we then said we welcome your love, we welcome your prayers, but please don’t do it on this site. This was a controversy for eight years.
We in the Jewish community, we in the ADL got accused of being bigots, that we are opposed to Christianity or the Catholic Church. And eventually the pope understood and said, OK, build it a mile away.
I know this imam and I agree with all those who have said he’s moderate. Well, part of the moderation, if you want to show the moderation, is being sensitive to the people you want to reach out to, to heal.
INSKEEP: You said you met the imam, Faisel Abdul Rauf.
Mr. FOXMAN: Correct.
INSKEEP: Have you had a chance to tell him your concerns?
Mr. FOXMAN: No. I met the imam several years ago. We worked with him. More recently he reached out to me and asked for support of the mosque. He basically said to me, Abe, I’m being attacked, my character is being attacked, I’m being called an extremist, and you know me – will you stand up? And I said absolutely. And I – we have, we’ve stood up as an agency to counter the attacks on his persona, on his character, on him being characterized an extremist. You know, that’s the extent of the conversations we’ve had.
INSKEEP: I wonder if a Muslim who professes to be a moderate Muslim might turn to you and say, why should this cause anybody pain? I may be a Muslim, but I am not the person who flew a plane into the Trade Center. I had nothing to do with it.
Mr. FOXMAN: Well, again, I would say to them neither were the Carmelite nuns. They had nothing to do 50 years earlier with Auschwitz. Again, everything that I know is he’s a moderate. Part of moderation is to be sensitive to those around you who are responding to you out of pain and anguish.
And so, you know, I thought it would have been wonderful – who am I to tell him, but you know, I guess I tell him through this, you know, if he would say, you know what, I do want to heal, I do want to reconcile, I do want to show the American public that there is an American Muslim tradition, that would be a wonderful, dramatic beginning rather than insisting this is where we want to heal, this is where we want to reconcile, in your cemetery.
The Buffalo Record 
“one should not place a symbol of terrible violence at the scene of that violence.”
This is exactly why they should build a mosque there if for no other reason to inform the public that their faith is not radical extremists who fly planes into buildings. Could that also not be part of this healing process?
One question… if the Catholics build a church a few blocks from a school is that considered in bad taste?
What happened at the school? Any school is probably too broad. But I agree with Mr. Foxman’s example of the Carmelite nuns near Auschwitz, despite the fact that Catholics were on Hitler’s target list too. I love the idea of the healing process – how is choosing this particular site helping?
It is helping by showing people that muslims have a faith that is not as radical as believed to be. Just because terrorists have sadistically twisted their faith for their cause does not make it a true part of that religion. That they are a group of people who wish to congregate in peace along side everyone else. The fact that they are a few blocks from that site means little to me in the most dense cities in America.
If you feel that they are in bad taste that is okay. But their right as Americans stands regardless.
I still don’t get what these Muslims have to do with 9/11. Are you saying that no religions should locate within a certain number of blocks of the site? parse this any way you like but this is nothing but veiled racism. I think that showing the world that we are an open and excepting society IS healing. Put the mosque there and the terrorists lose.
Your position and this guy’s position is not defensible.
The ADL should be ashamed of themselves for opposing the mosque and cultural center. Abe Foxman is not a “new” voice in this debate – he’s regurgitating the same nonsensical defense of “victim’s feelings” and, more ominously, the smear that all Muslims must bear blame for the acts of a few fanatics.
Are we now jettisoning the First Amendment in favor of, as John Cole puts it, the awesome responsibility of guarding everyone’s feelings? And how about the feelings of Muslims in NYC, who’ve just been told by the ADL that they shouldn’t worship where they want because their faith was perverted by a bunch of terrorists. Hold up….did I just say the ADL is telling people where they should and shouldn’t worship? I think my head just exploded.
I know you’re opposed to the more bigoted opposition to the Cordoba Initative and your opposition is rooted in “they can, but they shouldn’t” I would suggest you reread Mayor Bloomberg’s eloquent words and consider that this construction is a celebration of our freedoms and values, not a desecration of them.
@ Eric: Foxman is new to the WNYMedia debate, not to the whole thing, of course. And when did “victim’s feelings” earn quotes and disdain? Aren’t liberals always defending the low and powerless? There are a whole bunch here needing defending. Its not these Muslims fault their religion got smeared. Its not fault my Catholicsm got smeared by priests who like little boy pen-is. But both happened – we could ignore it did, I suppose. I’d rather respect both, and not put crosses in Auschwitz either. A question for you: do you believe this center will really lead to healing after the fight from the Imam’s insistence to put it in a graveyard? So we will have no understanding as part of our healing, then?
@ David: You’ve spent a lot of time not understanding things today – maybe try some ginko baloba.
Yes, Foxman is new to the WNYMedia debate, but he’s not bringing any new perspective. Other than invoking a curious Godwin law violation (which I’ll get to below).
My use of quotes around “victims’ feelings” was to express my disgust at craven politicos who are far too eager to grave-dig to support their misguided political point. Who speaks for the victims of Sept. 11th? You? Abe Fucking Foxman? Give me a break…those poor lost souls have been used and exploited for political gain for going on a decade now…except, of course for the 1,000+ Muslim victims of the attack whose tragic deaths are a turd in the punchbowl of xenophobic nutjobs who want to frame the attack as solely against good ol’ Murrikans. It’s high time that we stop the ghoulish tactic of raising the spectre of their deaths to make a political point.
Yes, it’s not the fault of the Muslim community in the U.S. (and, specifically, in New York) that they’ve been subject to vicious smears and outright bigotry in the years following the terrorist attack….that does not make it right to join in on the smearing and misrepresentation of their community because Newt Gingrich’s feelings get hurt.
As to Foxman’s reference to Auschwitz – so now we’re comparing the WTC site to Auschwitz? Funny….I wasn’t aware of a Burger King or a Pronto Pizza location near Auschwitz. Maybe the Poles haven’t heard about the BK Stacker or NYC-style thin crust.
To answer your last question – healing will come from respecting our values and, more importantly, our Consitutional rights. It won’t come from feeding into bigotry expressed by a group of narrow-minded, xenophobic zealots who want to appropriate a national tragedy to justify their bigotry against a minority class of people. And – “the Imam’s insistence to put it in a graveyard…” Really? You’re better than that, Brian. You’ve been reminded a few times that the center won’t even be within sight of the WTC crater. You insist you’re different than Sarah Palin, but bullshit like that is right up her alley.
BTW, this video is relevant.
The fact that it is not within specific sight of the WTC is completely irrelevant – it was hit and damaged by the fuselage of one of the aircraft, and may contain human remains. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1288872/Year-long-search-Ground-Zero-unearths-72-human-remains.html
That’s not bullshit. That’s a fucking graveyard.
I hear the strippers at the Pussycat Lounge are still wearing black armbands.
You stay classy.
I’m merely pointing out that are currently at least 3 strip clubs within 3 blocks of the WTC site, which would place them closer to the hallowed ground than the proposed Islamic center. If the Cordoba Initative is the “9/11 Mosque” (as per ex-Half Governor Palin), does that make the Pussycat Lounge the 9/11 Clip Joint?
There are plenty of businesses operating around the WTC, ranging from an OTB to a McDonalds to a Jamba Juice. And, oh yeah, two mosques on Warren St and West Broadway that have been in the neighborhood for decades.
If we applied your definition of any building affected by the plane and tower destruction as part of the “graveyard,” we’d have to shut down practically all of Tribeca
You raise a ligitmate point, that I am going to research for a post tomorrow – how did the border of the “historic” (I’m not sure what the right word is yet) district get chosen? Building had to be knocked down? Obviously, damaged by an aircraft was not an automatic.
I don’t have a problem with businesses, reputable or seedy, near the WTC site. I have a problem with what goes inside, and an Islamic center is just one of the establishments that I’d have a problem. So strip clubs in the footprint of the WTC or Pearl Harbor would give me pause, but outside or nearby is fine with me. I’m equal opportunity.
Or maybe I just don’t understand racism.
Without delving into the details, Fareed Zakaria last week returned an award that the ADL bestowed on him 5 years ago in response to its position on the Park51 center. But this is the best rebuttal I’ve read yet on the issue of sensitivity and feelings:
That’s an excellent question, and Zakaria is a mainstream, Western-based, intellectual Muslim. I distinctly remember him writing after Obama was elected that it felt good for him – with a weird name – to be able to tell his son that he could be anything he wants to be if he works hard, even President – and mean it.
How sad that an ejaculation of anti-Muslim sentiment has taken over certain sectors of society in this day and age, based solely on misguided emotion rather than thought.