The Burlington Coat Factory Mosque
By now, everyone has their favorite analogy for Park 51, the not-Mosque being planned at not-Ground Zero.
"It's like putting a KKK headquarters next to an MLK memorial!"
"No, it isn't. It's like putting a Catholic church next to a playground!"
"No, it's a Japanese cultural center next Pearl Harbor."
"It's a church next to a civil rights bombing site."
"It's an NRA rally after Columbine."
"You don't believe in religious freedom!"
"You're an apologist for terrorists!"
"You're a moron!"
"You're an idiot!"
And so on and so forth, until the lunchroom is cleared and Facebook friends are unfriended.
Since so much misinformation has been spread about Park 51, it is important we be on the same page about the facts before I continue. Namely :
- It isn't at Ground Zero. It is two blocks away from the edge of the Ground Zero and about 10 blocks away from where the actual towers stood.
- It's in an old Burlington Coat Factory building. It is not on "hallowed ground." See here for a map and some photos of the area. In fact, maybe I should start calling it the Burlington Coat Factory Mosque, so as to differentiate it from some fictional Ground Zero Mosque.
- It is not a Mosque. It is a cultural center, a bit like a YMCA, with a small mosque inside, but also a swimming pool, a fitness center and an auditorium.
- It is not being built by extremists. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has long been a voice against violence within Islam, worked with the FBI on counter-terrorism, was friendly with the Bush administration and has worked with Christians and Jews on interfaith issues.
- It is intended to be a statement against terrorism. Not to be confused with Newt Gingrich saying it is part of an effort "designed to undermine and destroy our civilization."
- There are already mosques near Ground Zero.
- 9/11 survivors are not all against this. Many survivors are for the cultural center, as a way to bridge the cultural divide.
- Around 60 Muslims died on 9/11. 61 if you include unborn children.
But I'm fascinated by the sheer number of analogies that have been used to describe this situation. They are not particularly illuminating as arguments (they are mostly just assertions, not arguments), but they do reveal a lot about people's frameworks and prejudices.
For instance, the purpose of the "KKK next to MLK" analogy is to demonstrate how insensitive Park 51 is. While perfectly legal, it would be outrageously insensitive for an organization responsible for so much pain and suffering to put up its headquarters right next to a memorial honoring the victims of that oppression. That does a good job of demonstrating insensitivity, but for the analogy to work, it is necessary to associate moderate American Muslims with Klansmen.
The "Christian church next to a civil rights bombing" analogy makes the opposite case. We don't confuse Christianity with the KKK and would not object to Christian churches near the site of a cross-burning. So why would we confuse Al Qaeda with Islam? Well, it depends on our framework. I would guess that fundamentalist Christians (who see Islam as competition) want to conflate Islam with its extremist elements. Pluralists (who see religions as more or less the same) are more likely to want there to be similarities among religions (who all have extremist elements).
The debate has taken a strange turn however. Everyone now agrees that it isn't about religious freedom (at least now that all legal avenues to shut down Park 51 have been defeated). The only recourse that reasonable opponents now have is to talk about the feelings of the 9/11 victims (or the subset that are against it).
This should sound oddly familiar to all of us old Chief Illiniwek debate warriors. After all, the main objection to the Chief was his insensitivity to Native Americans. This can roughly be translated to "the feelings" of Native Americans. The problem is, feelings are based on something underneath. And what's underneath is not all equally valid. After all, I doubt anyone would argue that we need to worry about Nazis being offended by the presence of Jews in their neighborhood or Klan members offended by the presence of African Americans.
But there I go, making another analogy. I'm not saying opponents of the Mosque are Nazis or Klansmen. What I am saying is that if feelings are based on bigotry, then they have no place in public debate. And I have yet to hear an argument or an analogy in opposition to Park 51 that does not boil down to "Islam is the same thing as terrorism." There's nothing to be offended by unless we are saying moderate American Muslims are the same thing as Al Queda.
And if we decide that the feelings of 9/11 victims are all that matters, where does that stop? Should we take the Muslim prayer room out of the Pentagon (another 9/11 attack site)? What happens if some victims become offended by the mere presence of Muslims in or around Ground Zero? What about people who look like they might be Muslim?
I don't think anyone particularly enjoys defending the excesses of Islam. Many strands of Islam are even more intolerant than many strands of Christianity. But this whole issue has become a pissing contest about whose religion causes the most violence. The only thing that is accomplished by such arguments is to make everyone smell like pee. We've spent the last ten years trying to convince Muslims around the world that we are at war with terrorists and fanatics, not with Islam. And yet, here we are, demonizing moderate Muslims when we should be embracing them, creating new enemies when we could be finding common ground.The irony is that fundamentalist Christians and Muslims both seem to be on the same page when it comes to how to treat others: Demonize those who are not part of your tribe as the enemy. We are letting the most intolerant people on both sides dictate the terms of our engagement with each other, and it will end badly for all of us if that continues.
The bottom line is that opposition to this community center is deeply, deeply un-American. One of our country's most important values, a value that we constantly struggle to live up to, is one of tolerance towards people who are different from the majority. That tolerance is becoming more and more frayed, as demagogues and agitators continue to dehumanize "the other," be they Muslims or immigrants or homosexuals. It's like we all say we believe in the Constitution, but only some of us actually know what that means. Wait, that's not an analogy. I suppose it is just straight opinion.
18 comments
denert
I really hope planet earth outgrows religion sometime in the next thousand years.
“We’ve spent the last ten years trying to convince Muslims around the world that we are at war with terrorists and fanatics, not with Islam. And yet, here we are, demonizing moderate Muslims when we should be embracing them, creating new enemies when we could be finding common ground.”
Nail meet head. The hysteria and disinformation campaigns over this and other mosques has sparked an anti-Muslim sentiment that almost seems worse than after 9/11… but probably not quite that bad yet. The pundits and media helping add to the hysteria for ad revenues are making me physically ill. (One cable news network in particular… going so far as implicating themselves as associated with terrorism to throw any amount of hysteria at the wall for it to stick.
The anti-mosque folks may have some legitimate concerns here or there, but if those concerns are there, they’ve been buried under a deluge of hysteria, ignorance of diversity of Islam, and bigots and others salivating for a real holy war.
What’s really sad is that this gesture to help bring better understanding and cooperation with the Islamic moderates and Americans has been turned into the exact opposite by media outlets that see hysteria as ad revenue generating goodness.
j
The ignorance and bigotry is pretty tiring, but trying to argue rationally and logically is futile against mob mentality. Freedom of religion seems to only extend to one very specific religion.
Bravo, Dan. This was a wonderful article. Now I’m going to share it on Facebook to find out who I can unfriend.
Realityville
Build a gay bar next to the Mosque.
then we have freedom
Mainsteam
Why do you people always listen to who you deem “idiots,” and then constantly react to it. No disrespect, but while some are focused on “unfriending,” as usual, things are more complex and don’t conform directly to what’s going on in your life at the moment only.
Here’s the guy funding the project -
Prince Al-Waleed owns an estimated $2.5-billion-worth of News Corp., second only to majority shareholder Rupert Murdoch - who recently took a stake in the prince’s Middle East-based media conglomerate, Rotana Group. Murdoch and Prince Al-Waleed are reportedly working on launching an Arabic news network that will compete with existing pan-Arabic networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
Got it? here’s the rest -
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0821/fox-shareholder-funded-mosque-imam/
@Realityville Right after Pat Robertson and James Dobson give their blessings to ones built next door to their churches.
I think a gay bar on “hallowed ground” is very progressive thinking.
Mainstream: And billionaire Erik Prince of Blackwater (currently relocating to the Emirates to avoid extradition, should there be indictments) founded and funded James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and the ultra-right Christian political movement. What I don’t understand is why people of all religious persuasions believe that “being right” is going to stop violence, war, and terror. The Iraq war was never about defense. And the Park 51 protests aren’t about stopping terrorism, either. People all over the world would rather fight to prove they are right (or superior in some way) than actually work to promote peace. They would rather have war than concede an inch of their ideology. In the meantime, the high rollers and the powerful keep their eyes on the breadbasket and will revise history or say anything at all that is going to “fill up the old coffers,” to use GWB’s apt phrase about how he would spend his retirement. Glenn Beck is revising history this weekend by claiming conservatives were responsible for the civil rights movement. What a strange, sad world we live in.
j
I suppose you could argue conservatives were responsible for a NEED for the civil rights movement. In the meantime, the muslim drinking fountain is around back.
I do agree this world is absurd.
It’s nearly hilarious to watch people argue for an extension of “equal rights” to a group which seeks to segregate its own population, and parse rights unequally.
I’m never very good at expressing my thoughts on things like this, but fortunately, someone better and smarter than me has already done so:
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. (George Washington)
Pete
The first time I heard about the ground zero mosque, I was incensed. I just couldn’t believe they would build such a thing at ground zero. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just move the thing a couple of blocks away.
Then I found out it was a couple of blocks away…
and it’s not even a mosque.
Then I thought, who are the morons in the media that are supposed to be fact-checking this shit? I know Fox isn’t big on facts, but I figured the “mainstream, liberal media” would’ve done a little legwork on this. This is the dumbest debate since since Coke vs. Pepsi.
By the way, Pepsi is obviously superior.
Robert Knilands
Pete, the “mainstream” media do not check facts these days.
I know. I used to have that job. Then they loaded us down with all sorts of stupid B.S., including chanting about how fabulous page design would have readers “dropping their cereal bowls” and stampeding to the checkout line to buy papers.
It was all B.S., set up for one reason—to give stupid people a way to keep their jobs. Newspapers have lost circulation in droves while they have implemented this approach. They lost out on the Internet opportunity while they were obsessing about the appearance of the print edition.
I have limited knowledge of the TV part of things, but from what I’m told, it’s way worse.
No one should be surprised if the media have botched this story.
P.S.: Look up the history of the word “mosque.”
Mainsteam
Robert - “botched.” Like this isn’t pre-planned, set-up, executed?
P- Glenn Beck? Who cares. He’s getting paid by murdoch and al-waleed.
The point is, why do we all start from there? Glenn Beck, or Olberman, or limbaugh, or any of the soothing baby talk on NPR…you have a brain too, the info is out there. You can even ignore the news and just make real art or something. But Murdoch really doesn’t care - he cares that that center gets built there with tons of publicity. Then idiots will flock to fox news in droves, and the rest will talk about it. Sounds like a lot of ownership/power there that has nothing to do with money. Too bad thats how the entire system works. If the people that fell for Obama would just admit it, it’d be a lot easier to let the zombie right just eat themselves. Then the real anti-war movement could start and actually stop this shit. The real truth is, from a completely practical standpoint, that any unity at all from people with either traditional right or traditional left values who think for themselves, would turn things around immediatly. But its hard to admit to a bad “intellectual investment,” and thats why we are so easy to manipulate. Because we do it with politics, entertainment, art (I like this band soooo much today that I’ve decided to like them forever no matter what), till, yeah, original invention, innovation, art, anything genuinly progressive does actually die.
Robert Knilands
Well, I agree that the left vs. right stuff is moronic, but I don’t see it going away any time soon. Too many people have bought into it.
With this coverage, the first part of it might be pre-planned, but then the other media sheep latch onto it. They are too afraid to think for themselves.
A few years ago, the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake had a great example of the sheep mentality. CBS News/Dan Blather ran with the Bush/National Guard story. For some reason, the paper did not pick it up at the end of that day’s news cycle when it made the wires.
The paper’s editor, a real Braniac named Chris Krug, then blasted his own staff in his column that week. Not long afterward, the CBS/Blather story was exposed as flawed. The very next week, Krug did a full 180, blasting CBS and wondering how such a flawed piece could have been aired. He did this even though he had just ripped his own people for not running it. I guess he thought no one would remember the earlier column.
Some of the laziest thinkers on the planet today are running newsrooms. It is really disappointing.
Pete
We have to care about Fox News and the “lamestream media” because the proletariat cares. A lot. And there are a lot of them. And they vote. And they are really fucking stupid. So as much as I would love to stick my head in the sand and ignore them, the reality is that the media are kingmakers… and they are making some really shitty (and convoluted) kings.
And Robert, it’s not just that they are lazy, but they are also dishonest. There is no consistency or principle. They just run whatever the hell they think will sell more copy regardless of the veracity of it. The “media” has become nothing more than infomercial pitchmen for the latest and greatest demagoguery.
Robert Knilands
I guess I agree with most of that. I’d like to think I wasn’t part of actively running dishonest articles, but I definitely agree there is a lot of throwing stuff at the wall to see what will stick.
The worst concept, by far, is the celebrity obsession stuff. The Mount Everest of that idiocy is a daily “People” column created by The Associated Press (Motto: We cover New York.)
Right after Sept. 11, 2001, there was hand-wringing among the editors about how we HAD to do things better. We were going to print more world news and less fluff. That approach lasted maybe a month, and then we were right back to running the People column and all the usual crap.
No one is going to get rich analyzing the ideologies of Central Asian politics every day, but is it really necessary to fall to the lowest common denominator?
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