I complained the other day about opponents of Cordoba House assuming that Muslim worship occurring near the World Trade Center violates an implicit boundary of decency. That boundary remains hazy because explaining the indecency of Muslim presence near the World Trade Center would require these critics to admit anti-Muslim prejudice. Karen Hughes, President Bush's top public diplomat, exemplifies the phenomenon for us today. She goes out of her way to emphasize her respect and understanding for Islam, then concludes:
I believe that most Americans who oppose locating a mosque near Ground Zero are neither anti-freedom nor anti-Muslim; they just don't believe it's respectful, given what happened there. I say that as someone who strongly believes that the Sept. 11 attackers and other members of al-Qaeda do not represent any faith, but instead taint all faith with their acts of murder. I met many Muslims around the world who feel that, along with airplanes, the terrorists hijacked their religion.
"What happened there" is, as Hughes says, not representative of any faith, and certainly not representative of Islam. How then could a Mosque nearby be disrespectful, indecent, or whatever paltry moralism critics of the project are currently trotting out to defend their prejudice?
Later on, Hughes claims the mosque would be "a searing reminder of terrible deaths at the hands of murderers calling themselves Muslims."* That's exactly the point of this debate: Do we let al-Qaeda decide who is a Muslim, or do we instead accept the broad reality of a global Muslim community that shares our basic human aspirations? Opposing this project is confirming the former view.
Reading between the lines, you get the sense that Hughes is asking everyone to join in a kind of high-minded condescension toward opponents of the mosque: "Sure, we know that Al Qaeda is a perversion of Islam, but the people who oppose can't make that distinction and we should humor their unreasoning fear by moving the mosque a few blocks away." That's a politic way to resolve the situation, and perhaps it'll come to pass. But Hughes is simply perpetuating a damaging and offensive myth -- that al-Qaeda represents Islam -- by giving it credibility, rather than standing up for the ideas and ideals she supposedly affirms.
-- Tim Fernholz
*As a side note, isn't Ground Zero itself a constant searing reminder of the events of 9/11? Are there a lot of people who live and work in Lower Manhattan who don't think of the attacks when they see the World Trade Center site but would suddenly have their world shattered by the front door of Cordoba House? This debate has so little to do with reality.
