by Cedric Mcclester

Created on: August 25, 2010

I am reminded of actor Jack Nicholson’s immortal line from the motion picture, A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth!”, when the so-called Ground Zero Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. is castigated for saying the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda .  Upon careful examination, and a critical analysis, devoid of the usual emotionalism, he is correct.  While it is convenient to dismiss Muslims who practice terror as “hating us because we’re free,” the fact of the matter is they hate us because they feel they’ve been oppressed by us.   Does this make Mr. Rauf anti-American to point these things out?  The answer should be no, although that’s how he’s being painted. If we can't be honest with ourselves, we will never get a handle on terrorism.

Imam Rauf has proudly served this country and continues to do so.  As this is being written, he’s in the Middle East at great risk to himself I might add, attempting to sell Muslims on the virtues of America and an Americanized version of Islam.  The thanks he gets for his efforts, is to have his motives questioned for wanting to build a 15 story cultural center with two floors devoted to prayer space on land his group owns and has every legal right to build on.  Opponents are hell-bent on stopping the mosque from going up.  One slight problem, a mosque is a place of prayer.  As prayers are presently held in the space, 51 Park Place, technically a mosque exists there now.  If it is insensitive to build the cultural center two blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood, as its opponents suggest, then it is equally insensitive to suggest that the Muslims who desire to build the cultural center at 51 Park Place are even remotely associated with the people who committed the 9/11 atrocity, which was clearly unIslamic.

Some opponents say to have a mosque so close to Ground Zero would serves as a victory trophy to terrorist the world over whom would pray there.  While terrorists may yell Allahu Akbar (God is Great) before committing an act of blaspheme , rarely will you find them praying in a mosque.  Terrorists practice “hislam” not Islam.  They have by their acts of treachery to Islam, created their own religion.  How any rational minded person could think that God would sanction the wanton slaughter of innocents is a mystery.  Two Catholics getting together to discuss why the cultural center in question should be built elsewhere, does nothing towards finding a solution to the controversy.  New York’s ethically challenged Governor David Paterson invited Archbishop Timothy Dolan, of  St. Patrict’s Church, to discuss the situation.  Then Assemblyman Sheldon Silver who is an orthodox Jew saw fit to weigh in on the matter with anti-build rhetoric.  Today in the minds of many Muslim is a pejorative term.  It is assumed if one is Muslim one is either a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer.  This is unfortunate.  There can never be any  meaningful dialogue as long as these misconceptions exists.  By and large, Muslims want what everybody else does, the right to live their lives in peace and prosperity and to worship in accordance with their faith.

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