Revisiting the Ground Zero Mosque
I'm not sure what combination of happy accident intertube glitches brought me back to Angelo's post today (Learning About Muslims), but what synchronicity!
I have been puzzling through the right-wing non-issue du jour this week (and last week), actually finding some sympathy in my heart for survivors who blamed the entire Muslim world for the World Trade Center attacks, who didn't (absolutely couldn't) live with a mosque at Ground Zero, while at the same time I loved the balance of the plan.
Of course, come to find out, this "mosque" (which isn't a mosque at all) wasn't planned for Ground Zero, Newt Gingrich backed off a little and admitted it was across the street. (And I thought, "across the street? This really IS a non-issue.") Okay, so it's not exactly across the street either, it's several blocks away and not in eyesight of anywhere at the wreckage that's become a sort of holy ground in lower Manhattan. Gingrich hasn't backed down that far, but this is what is true, this community center is pretty far away as the lame-kneed Janets fly.
And so, in trying to reason out what is right, what is fair, what is true, to be shown Angelo's Learning About Muslims again (I'm thinking it was written in January), this really helped me agree with myself that my feeling this mosque thing is a non-issue, and feeling ready to stand up and defend anyone's right to purchase land and build whatever within local zoning laws, is an absolute right.
And then I stumbled upon Keith Olbermann's remarks on the topic. Now I'm not a big fan of Mr. Olbermann, but I think this time he is absolutely right, he nailed it.
What do you think?
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A small but significant error
I like Keith even though he often overdoes it. (Rachel is much more balanced and good-humored.) But he made an error in his comment on the "Ground Zero Mosque". There actually is a mosque there, though it's not a free-standing one.
According to the developer, Sharif El-Gamal, in a Jerusalem Post article, "There will be a mosque component, which will be a separate not-for-profit component of the project."
So it's a community center with a mosque on top. But no minarets, just the top two floors containing what Keith called "a prayer space". Since it's dedicated for worship services, and since it has its own corporate identity, the prayer space is indeed a mosque. And the building is being used right now as a mosque. It handles the overflow from the very small nearby basement mosque that Keith mentioned toward the end of his comment.
There's a good summary of the issue on Wikipedia. The article is titled "Park51".
Except for this one error, which, to be fair, reflects some contradictory and ambiguous statements from the organizers of the center, Keith does nail it. IMO.
Wonderful post Janet
hi Janet. This is a wonderful post. Thanks for the plug on my blog of a few months ago. I don't watch Olbermann except when it is posted here by a blogger, but he's right in his commentary on this mosque controversy. That quote from the German who was put in a concentration camp is very appropriate to now. When we denigrate one group of people and stereotype a whole group of people for the actions of a few fringe or extremist members, it leads to the sort of hysteria that could eventually lead to a red scare or a holocaust.
Nice to hear from you again Janet. Hope things are well.
Angelo
Well I believe that being
Well I believe that being judgmental to our fellow Muslims is not so "Christian" at all. Yes, the attackers are Muslim but it's not just for us to pour out our anger to others who happened to be of their race. We should let them live in peace and let them exercise their rights.
- Miriam (hospitals)"
I so agree
We have more in common than we do differences. And it's not "Christian" to be fueled by this xenophobic rage that I don't understand the need for or the meaning of. Seems like it is the rabid fundamentalists of whatever stripe that seem to be causing most of the trouble.