It's a bit ridiculous that I feel like I have to write this post.
Really? A Muslim community with 20+ years of living, working, and praying in lower Manhattan has to justify its plans to develop a blighted property into a community center? Apparently, yes.
I've had more than one congregant at my church confront me with outrage about the community center--calling it a "desecration" that must be stopped. These are otherwise rational, loving people.
So, yes, I have to write this post.
Let's first get this out there--the proposed site for the community center is a dump (that's a photo of it, above). Lower Manhattan, far from being a "sacred space," hallowed by the tragedy of 9/11, is a bizarre pastiche of mammoth corporate offices, delis, and chain stores. Historically, there are very few living quarters downtown, so it's a neighborhood that swells during the day with commuters coming in at 9 in the morning from the boroughs and the 'burbs on the subways and the New Jersey PATH trains, who turn around and file out at 5 PM, turning the neighborhood into a ghost town. Because so few people live downtown, it's one of the most lonely-feeling parts of New York. A Muslim cultural center with an attractive street front and real 24/7 programming would be a significant asset to an otherwise depressing part of the city.
Second, let's also say that the proposed center is not "at Ground Zero." It's two blocks away. Two blocks away may sound close where you're reading this from, but in New York, two blocks can be another world. This is a city of neighborhoods, and crossing a street can put you in a different part of town. If you've ever wandered through this part of Manhattan, you know that the proposed site of the community center is in the sphere of City Hall, in the vicinity of an entirely unwelcoming array of federal and nameless corporate buildings. If you continue down Broadway a block further south, you get to St. Paul's Chapel, which marks the beginning of the World Trade Center area. THAT'S where the sacred space begins. In a New York-centric worldview, the community center/City Hall site and the Trade Center site are not the same neighborhood. These two blocks are meaningful. It's not as though the center is being built "on top" of the former Trade Centers, as the media attention suggests.
The best case of all for the community center is the historic role that the center's leader, Imam Rauf, and his wife, Daisy Khan, have played in New York City's religious life. Simply put, they are the kind of Muslims that give Muslims a good name. They are intellectual, faithful, and committed to interfaith cooperation and understanding. Anyone who cares to examine the record of their work will see their consistent commitments. Anyone who speaks with those who have worked directly with them will hear praise. Anyone who cares to comment on this proposed community center should take the time to read their writings and get to know them. They are an asset to this city. Their community center would be a place that I would visit to engage Muslims in conversation and to learn more about Islam.
But, of course, the debate about this community center (or "mosque," if you prefer the inaccurate but more salacious term) is not really about the particular people involved. No one is arguing about the integrity of the leadership, nor are they talking about the particular religious commitments of Imam Rauf (has anyone you've heard differentiate Rauf's mystical Sufism with Sunni Islamic fundamentalism?). No one in this debate is mentioning the fact that Rauf is a controversial figure among Muslims--many of whom don't believe his version is Islam is the "real" Islam at all (see this New York Times article for a bit more about Rauf).
No, this debate is not about the particulars. Not remotely. This is a debate about the character of Islam.
And that, I hate to admit, is the strongest critique of the project.
Islam has a big-time PR problem. There are simply too few examples generally available to the American public of a version of Islam that is sympathetic to democratic values. The most visible Muslim nations in the world right now--Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan--are not bastions of democracy. The most populous Muslim nation in the world IS a democracy (Indonesia), but no one knows it. There are between 2 and 7 million Muslims in America--they serve in our Armed Forces, they teach our children, they are doctors, and engineers. But too few of us know one them, let alone have we visited their houses of worship.
The strongest argument against this community center is not one based in the particulars. Look at the site, the individuals involved, the proposal, and it's a great project--a community asset in the city of New York. But if you deliberately avoid the particulars and focus only on Islam and whether or not it is a religion that is proven to be compatible with democratic values... the preponderance of visible evidence says "no."
Of course, if you want to argue in defense of democratic values, you should probably, for the sake of consistency, plan on upholding those democratic values in your actions... which means letting the community center--a "mosque" even--be built.
its funny. Here I am back in Louisville, and people (mostly conservatives I must say) are up in arms over the "mosque". I had been telling folks "well if you live in NYC you get that this is a non issue" Now here comes lewicki to burst my bubble and tell me Newyorkers are saying the same thing. SIGH.....I remember the great trialouge service, I remember EVERY week the muslim community I let into burrell hall to worship their faith in an open space. I saw them every week, spoke to them sometimes. I recall the muslim merchants on the street.
ReplyDeleteThese people became a part of my social conscious every day. They became as normal as wallpaper to me, and just about as "dangerous". I thought that was the difference, that midwesterners hadnt been exposed to the beauty of muslim culture so they assumed fear of the unknown. Now you tell me Nyers who know muslims that are fine holy people, are also enraged...
makes me sad I must say.
Amen, David. In spite of the uproar, I feel blessed to live in a multicultural city in which downtown residents, though their community board, have embraced this project--and in which the citywide landmarks commission didn't bow to pressure to designate the building as having historical value (it doesn't) in order to sabotage the plans. I look forward to visiting when Park51 is complete. Part of it will be a mosque, by the way, but that's just fine with me. And the city.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I have shared your post on my blog because this is exactly how I feel about this whole "issue." Xenophobia is nothing new but using it as a campaign tactic so obviously makes me sick. It makes me feel like we are back trying to integrate schools.
ReplyDeleteThe "no-muslim-building" argument is that we are racists. It's very hard to persuade a racist not to be racist. 100% of the USA could be racist, which does not mean they are not racist, nor does it mean that racism is good or bad, cleansing or ugly, safe or dangerous. Racists are racist.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous=JeremyTucker's memory of GMAIL password.
ReplyDeleteYou can't see the World Trade Center site from the Mosque site and vice versa. It's two blocks away and in the middle of the block.
ReplyDeleteSomeone would have to go out of their way to be offended. They would have to ask a passerby for directions!
In Manhattan, where everybody walks everywhere, two blocks is like two miles.
The closer you get to the site, the less you care because it is a completely different world. It is century old office buildings and places to eat lunch in store fronts. I associate it more with tuna on rye with a pickle than the World Trade Center.
The "it's not Ground Zero" argument is almost as riduculous as the "it's a depressing dump" argument and shows you have no understanding of this area or the idea that real New Yorkers sometimes need a place that gets quiet. Your idea of a 24/7 community is the same thing Mike Bloomberg and the real estate interests have been pushing for years, but I digress.
ReplyDeleteI support the mosque and religious freedom, but 2 blocks in this case is not a world away (Oh, and please credit NYT's Clyde Haberman if you're going to borrow that argument). No one seems to remember that body and plane parts traveled for blocks around the original site. One block further up from the mosque site (at Chruch and Murray street), landed a plane engine and you can still see the indentation in the sidewalk. Imagine how many human remains landed on top of the buildings around, including the proposed mosque site? It is very close to Ground Zero, and perhaps even sacred space as well, at least to the relatives of the dead who's body parts landed there.
I came across your blog hitting the "next blog" button. This post caught my eye.
ReplyDeleteShould people who call themselves Christians encourage people who reject Christ to propagate their faith? In a country that believes in freedom that is a hard question in the face of a religion that denies freedom.
I ask this question a lot and rarely get an answer: Have you read the entire Koran, every surah read in context? If not, I would encourage you do do so. It will not convert you but it might open your eyes. A peaceful Muslim is a Muslim who has not read his own book and obviously is living in disobedience to it.
Grace and Peace