Looking back at the “Ground Zero Mosque” Debate

Looking back at the “Ground Zero Mosque” Debate

As a resident of Manhattan who watched smoke rise from Ground Zero on September 11^th, 2001, I remember the atmosphere in New York after the attacks pretty well. Sure, millions came together, but many took out their fear and anger on Muslims. Hate crimes against Arab New Yorkers soared in the wake of 9/11. Americans who wore turbans, spoke Arabic or looked Middle Eastern all-of-a-sudden feared for their safety.

I remember cringing at the sound of an airplane, imagining my school as a target and struggling to sleep at night, worried about more nightmares of collapsing buildings. But my fears never materialized. Terrorism never claimed the life of anyone I knew. For Muslim-Americans in New York and around the nation after the September 11^th attacks, fears did materialize. According to The Council on American Islamic Relations, there have been over 3,000 cases of Islamaphobic hate crime in the United States since 9/11/01. And these attacks have not just been in southern red states. The largest percentage of any state (20%) occurred in California. 10% in New York. 7% in Florida. 5% each in Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio.  As for college campuses, some of the most visceral attacks and hate crimes have taken place at academic institutions ranging from Yale University, where Muslims students and teachers received violent and personalized death threats to San Jose State University where graffiti in bathrooms claimed all Muslims on campus would be shot dead.

When the so-called “Ground Zero mosque" (ironic because it is not just a mosque nor very close to Ground Zero) debate came about in early 2011, another outlet was established for Americans to voice their Islamaphobia. My own grandfather had the nerve to call the construction of the Islamic center 3 blocks from Ground Zero “insensitive”. And his words were light compared to those of many.

While there are porn shops closer to Ground Zero in the claustrophobic streets of Lower Manhattan, the creation of an Islamic Center presented another opportunity for an expression of Islamaphobia in the Western world. Dozens of 9/11 victims were Muslims and the community center would not even be visible from the World Trade Center sight. Yet the majority of Americans and New York City residents have been persuaded to oppose building the mosque.

Did people really understand what exactly was being proposed? Do they still not really understand what is being built? The center is intended to serve as a platform for multi-faith dialogue, even to provide refuge to 9/11 victim’s families of all faiths, many of who are still suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (as 64,000 New Yorkers were diagnosed). The Islamic center has always had plans to include a memorial to 9/11 victims! Not to mention, a 500-seat auditorium, an art studio, a childcare area, a performing arts center, a bookstore, a culinary school, a fitness center, and a food court.

An Islamic center built in a community that would use it (Lower Manhattan is home to thousands of Muslim-Americans) replacing a Burlington Coat Factory damaged by the 9/11 attacks, in no way threatens Americans or as many have had the balls to argue, celebrates the September 11^th attacks. It provides an architecturally unique structure to a Lower Manhattan stuffed with far too many ugly, grey buildings. It creates a center for something other than 9 to 5 shifts of cubicle-structured-stress. As one of the many residents of the beautiful city of New York, I’ve never been much of a fan of lower Manhattan. When the twin towers stood as a marvel to my childhood eyes, there was a terrific outdoor area outside at their base that provided my mother a great place to take my brother and I. Since 9/11, we have had little reason to visit the area. While an Islamic center will likely fail to change this reality, putting a uniquely designed building in the neighborhood with a basketball court, swimming pool and beautiful 9/11 memorial, all inside and open to the public, it can’t hurt the neighborhoods appeal.

If you ask me, there is simply no concrete reason to oppose the center. When Mayor Bloomberg was approached by a Marine wanting to talk to him about the Islamic center in a Manhattan restaurant earlier this year, he thought he was going to be told why it shouldn’t be built. Instead, the Marine said what he was fighting in Iraq for was freedom, not fear. He told the mayor that the center should be built because it can stand as a symbol of our constitution and what we believe in as a nation.

Colleen Kelley, who lost her brother William on 9/11, says, the "irony in the debate over the section of the building that would house a mosque is that one might assume that God (the same God to Jews-Christians-Muslims) would be pleased with any type of effort that involves prayer and service to others." Orlando Rodriguez and Phyllis Schaefer Rodriguez, whose son died in the attack, say they "support the building of the Islamic community center in lower Manhattan" and "feel that it would honor our son and other victims". Herb Ouida, whose son Todd died, said: "To say that we're going to condemn a religion and castigate a billion people in the world because they're Muslims, to say that they shouldn't have the ability to pray near the World Trade Center—I don't think that's going to bring people together and cross the divide." Herb Ouida, whose son Todd died, said: "To say that we're going to condemn a religion and castigate a billion people in the world because they're Muslims, to say that they shouldn't have the ability to pray near the World Trade Center—I don't think that's going to bring people together and cross the divide. Donna O'Connor, whose pregnant daughter died on 9/11, expressed the opinion that "This building will serve as an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans ... recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent."[235Donna O'Connor, whose pregnant daughter died on 9/11, expressed the opinion that "This building will serve as an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans ... recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent."

Just like our President, I am glad the Islamic Center is being built. Americans need to put Islamaphobia behind them, and once the community begins to embrace this seemingly wonderful Islamic center, perhaps many can finally do so.

WikiPedia, CityLimits.org, The Richmond Times Dispatch, The New York Post and The New York Times all served as sources for this article.