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Why Christians Should Support the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’
By Lisa Sharon Harper (Executive Director of NY Faith and Justice, author, poet, and award-winning playwright)

Of the 1366 people who died on 9/11, 59 were Muslims. Yet Reuters reported yesterday that New York Governor David Paterson will pressure the developer of the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan to relocate. This is nuts.

As an Evangelical Christian, three pillars of my faith guide my response to this trumped-up controversy: forgiveness rooted in the Cross, the value for Truth, and the call to love our neighbor.

Evangelicals believe in the power of the Cross, the place where Jesus died at the hands of his enemies; the place where Jesus uttered, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do”; the place that makes radical forgiveness possible. Yet the Muslim world did not perpetrate the terrorist acts of 9/11, so there is actually no need to forgive Muslims for 9/11. The fault sits squarely with Al Qaeda, a small terrorist organization. And therein lies is the irony. We have failed to do the lesser thing. Jesus calls us to follow him into forgiveness of our enemy. But forgiveness isn’t politically profitable. So we have been led by Evangelical hacks like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to feed on misdirected bitterness rather than follow Jesus’ lead.
Fear and hysteria are no excuse for muddled language and twisted truths. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Thus, to suppress truth is to suppress Jesus himself. Why would Jesus care about truth? Because lies destroy people made in the image of God, thus destroying the image of God on Earth. We would do well to remember that the next time Newt Gingrich rants that building a mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center is like the Nazis putting a swastika next to the Holocaust Museum. Come on.

So what is the truth?

Dr. Sarah Sayeed, president of Women in Islam, Inc. and program director for the Interfaith Center of New York, explained in a recent interview:

There has been a mosque on Warren Street, four blocks from the World Trade Center site, for many many years. My dad used to go there for prayers when I was a little kid. A lot of the Muslim people who work at City Hall or in the financial district would go to that mosque.

The Warren Street Mosque lost its lease and had to find a new location. Some people in that community came together and were able to purchase the building on Park Place and West Broadway, where the Islamic Community Center is now proposed; two blocks closer to Ground Zero. The people in the purchasing community partnered with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who had another mosque in Tribeca — also close to Ground Zero. Imam Feisal serves on the board of the Interfaith Center of New York.

Their vision included a full-blown community center that serves the wider community, not just the Muslim community. It’s conceived in the tradition of the YMCA, with a pool, a place for seniors to congregate, a place for the arts and a multi-faith chapel and prayer space. So, it’s really a cultural center that is being built by a group of Muslims. They’re also talking about having an interfaith advisory group to help shape the work in the building.

In light of this truth, to ask this long-established community to relocate is a first step down the long road to ethnic cleansing. It is the antithesis of Jesus’ call to love our neighbor.

Governor Patterson and other politicians are trading truth for political points. And worse, without realizing it, they are following the lead of right-wing liar, Pamela Geller, founder of Stop the Islamization of America, a crude website dedicated to stopping the spread of Islam in the U.S. and worldwide. Loonwatch.com lists Geller as “the looniest blogger ever.” The mosque controversy traces directly back to Geller. And it is true to form. During the 2008 elections, Geller claimed that Obama was a Muslim and that purple is the official “gangsta” color of the Obama administration — no connection, just goof-ball.

My faith’s values for forgiveness, truth, and love of neighbor lead me to conclude that politicians using the Islamic community center as an opportunity to score political points are mounting a direct assault against the honor of the dead — not just the 59 Muslim Americans who died but also all those whose lives were stolen by the hands of terrorists on September 11, 2001. They are betraying the heart of our country. Worse, they are betraying the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the free exercise of religion. And this is the one freedom Islamic extremists despise most.

L.A. religious leaders join support for New York Islamic center
By Jonah Lowenfeld

At a press conference Friday morning, religious leaders from a variety of faiths gathered at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles to express support for the building of an Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center. The project, often referred to as the Mosque at Ground Zero, has been at the center of a political and media frenzy since late July. The leaders’ statement, released at the event, was drafted by the Muslim Public Affairs Council and signed by 71 religious leaders and clergy, including eight Jewish leaders, from across Greater Los Angeles, and it offered a strong rebuttal to those who oppose the center.

“We support the building of the Islamic Center … in lower Manhattan, and other mosques and community centers across the nation,” the one-page statement says. Standing outside the Los Angeles Islamic Center, Reverend Anne Felton Hines, minister of Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church in Canoga Park, read the statement, which acknowledges the impact of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 on people of all faiths, yet affirms “the right of Muslim Americans to build a house of worship like any other American, at any location according to local ordinances and U.S. law.”

In attendance were more than 30 religious leaders, including about half a dozen local Jewish leaders. Other also present were Roman Catholics, Quakers, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Muslims.

“The President said he would not comment on the wisdom of building a mosque and a community center in Lower Manhattan,” said Stephen Rohde, co-president of Progressive Jewish Alliance and chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace. Rohde was referring to a statement made by President Obama last Saturday in which he qualified earlier remarks that seemed to signal his support for the project. “We today are commenting on that wisdom. It is wise, it is right, it is good for that mosque and community center to be built in that place,” Rohde said in the morning’s most impassioned speech.

The project, named Park51 for its street address and which is intended to be the home of the interfaith center Cordoba House, has been public since late 2009. It became the subject of controversy when several prominent conservative pundits—notably former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich—picked up on a right-wing blog opposing the center’s construction. Though the center’s website says the building will include a mosque, the majority of the space in the building would not be dedicated to religious activities. With a swimming pool, a gym, a basketball court, a restaurant, a culinary school and other amenities that will be made available to all, it has been likened by many to a YMCA or Jewish community center.

Rabbi Jonathon Klein of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) pointed to the project’s multiple uses. “This mosque issue is not even a mosque issue. It’s about a community center,” Klein said. “The Jewish community has a history of wonderful Jewish community centers all over this country, without barriers to their existence. Why is it that the Muslim community should be scapegoated at this time?”

Opponents of Park51, who speak of the need for sensitivity to the families of victims of 9/11, have asked why the Islamic center needs to be in that particular location. Indeed, that was the only question asked by a member of the press at this morning’s conference.

A number of speakers offered extemporaneous responses. Dr. Maher Hathout, senior advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said that the people behind Park51 had a constitutional right to build. “It is two lies [that have] happened,” he said, noting that the so-called Ground Zero Mosque was neither actually on the World Trade Center site, nor would it be solely a mosque. “It is a community center,” Hathout said.

Lewis Logan, pastor of Ruach Christian Community Fellowship, strongly objected to the question. “If it were a Catholic church being proposed,” he said, “there would be no question about the wisdom of building in that particular location. If it were a Baptist church, if it were any other faith, there would be no question about it. I abhor the question itself.”

“I don’t want, for one moment, in the shadow of this, not to make a comment about Temecula, “ said Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills, referring to another instance of public opposition to building plans for a mosque. A city of 105,000 in Riverside County, Temecula is about 90 miles from Los Angeles, and over 2,700 miles from Ground Zero. “You may talk about New York, but in our own vast city of Los Angeles, there are religious leaders standing up and saying the same thing about a mosque being built in the midst of their city. How tragic. It is not about New York. It’s about the soul of America.”

A number of Al Azhar ulema expressed their opposition to building a mosque near [where] the events of September 11 [occurred], convinced that it is “a conspiracy to confirm a clear connection between the strikes of September [11] and Islam.” Dr. ‘Abd al-Mu‘ti Bayumi, a member of the Islamic Research Academy [of Al Azhar] told Al Masry Al Youm that he rejects the building of any mosque in this area [Ground Zero], because the “devious mentality” desires to connect these events [of 9/11] with Islam, though he maintains that Islam is innocent of this accusation. Instead, it is a “Zionist conspiracy,” which many are making use of to harm the religion. Likewise, Dr. Amna Nazir, professor of doctrine and philosophy at Al Azhar, expressed her rejection that a mosque be built near the World Trade Center, saying: “Building a mosque on this rubble indicates bad intention — even if we wished to shut our eyes, close our minds, and insist on good will. I hope it is a sincere step, and not a new conspiracy against Islam and Muslims.”

Taking Bin Laden’s Side
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: August 21, 2010

Is there any doubt about Osama bin Laden’s position on the not-at-ground-zero mosque?

Osama abhors the vision of interfaith harmony that the proposed Islamic center represents. He fears Muslim clerics who can cite the Koran to denounce terrorism.

It’s striking that many American Republicans share with Al Qaeda the view that the West and the Islamic world are caught inevitably in a “clash of civilizations.” Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric who recruits jihadis from his lair in Yemen, tells the world’s English-speaking Muslims that America is at war against Islam. You can bet that Mr. Awlaki will use the opposition to the community center and mosque to try to recruit more terrorists.

In short, the proposed community center is not just an issue on which Sarah Palin and Osama bin Laden agree. It is also one in which opponents of the center are playing into the hands of Al Qaeda.

These opponents seem to be afflicted by two fundamental misconceptions.

The first is that a huge mosque would rise on hallowed land at ground zero. In fact, the building would be something like a YMCA, and two blocks away and apparently out of view from ground zero. This is a dense neighborhood packed with shops, bars, liquor stores — not to mention the New York Dolls Gentlemen’s Club and the Pussycat Lounge (which says that it arranges lap dances in a private room, presumably to celebrate the sanctity of the neighborhood).

Why do so many Republicans find strip clubs appropriate for the ground zero neighborhood but object to a house of worship? Are lap dances more sanctified than an earnest effort to promote peace?

And this is an earnest effort. I know Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan — the figures behind the Islamic community center — and they are the real thing. Because I have written often about Arab atrocities in Darfur and about the abuse of women in Islamic countries, some Muslim leaders are wary of me. But Imam Feisal and Ms. Khan are open-minded and have been strong advocates for women within Islam.

The second misconception underlying this debate is that Islam is an inherently war-like religion that drives believers to terrorism. Sure, the Islamic world is disproportionately turbulent, and mullahs sometimes cite the Koran to incite murder. But don’t forget that the worst brutality in the Middle East has often been committed by more secular rulers, like Saddam Hussein and Hafez al-Assad. And the mastermind of the 1970 Palestinian airline hijackings, George Habash, was a Christian.

Remember also that historically, some of the most shocking brutality in the region was justified by the Bible, not the Koran. Crusaders massacred so many men, women and children in parts of Jerusalem that a Christian chronicler, Fulcher of Chartres, described an area ankle-deep in blood. While burning Jews alive, the crusaders sang, “Christ, We Adore Thee.”

My hunch is that the violence in the Islamic world has less to do with the Koran or Islam than with culture, youth bulges in the population, and the marginalization of women. In Pakistan, I know a young woman whose brothers want to kill her for honor — but her family is Christian, not Muslim.

Precisely because Palestinian violence has roots outside of Islam, Israel originally supported the rise of Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials thought that if Gazans became more religious, they would spend their time praying rather than firing guns.

President George W. Bush was statesmanlike after 9/11 in reaching out to Muslims and speaking of Islam as a religion of peace. Now many Republicans have abandoned that posture and are cynically turning the Islamic center into a nationwide issue in hopes of votes. It is mind-boggling that so many Republicans are prepared to bolster the Al Qaeda narrative, and undermine the brave forces within Islam pushing for moderation.

Some Republicans say that it is not a matter of religious tolerance but of sensitivity to the feelings of relatives to those killed at ground zero. Hmm. They’re just like the Saudi officials who ban churches, and even confiscate Bibles, out of sensitivity to local feelings.

On my last trip to Saudi Arabia, I brought in a Bible to see what would happen (alas, the customs officer searched only my laptop bag). Memo to Ms. Palin: Should we learn from the Saudis and protect ground zero by banning the Koran from Lower Manhattan?

For much of American history, demagogues have manipulated irrational fears toward people of minority religious beliefs, particularly Catholics and Jews. Many Americans once honestly thought that Catholics could not be true Americans because they bore supreme loyalty to the Vatican.

Today’s crusaders against the Islamic community center are promoting a similar paranoid intolerance, and one day we will be ashamed of it.