Recent surveys by TIME magazine revealed that 61 percent of Americans do not support the building of an Islamic community center in Manhattan, two blocks from Ground Zero.
This 61 percent has been fighting tooth and nail to stop the construction of the cultural center, and the media has been milking this controversy for all it is worth in recent weeks. News networks have been hosting numerous debates and interviews with Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, the man leading the community center project, and Terry Jones, a Florida pastor who had plans to burn copies of the Qur?an in protest of the community center.
The first misconception that many people have about the project is that they think it is a mosque. The project Rauf has planned is not for a mosque, but a ?multi-cultural center,? according to Rauf. Many think that the cultural center is only intended for Muslims, but people of all faiths will be welcome to the cultural center.
The whole purpose of the center is to ?embody the fundamental beliefs of Jews, Christians, and Muslims? and to ?forge personal bonds with one another,? Rauf said in a CNN interview. The scare tactics that opponents of the cultural center have been using are shameful. People have been labeling the cultural center as a Mosque, claiming that it will be tribute to Islamic terrorism and a training ground for terrorist groups.
With all due respect the 3,000 people who lost their lives on 9/11 and their families, the cultural center should not be taken as an insult to them. In most religions, including Islam, violence and terror are condemned. Being a moral and accepting person is a key principle of Islam, and any non-Muslim should know that.
The Islam that the terrorists were practicing was not true Islam. No one can blame 9/11 on the Muslims as a whole; in general, Christianity as a whole is not blamed for the violence caused by the Ku Klux Klan. Muslims and Islamic culture should not be stereotyped by the actions committed by a small faction of so-called ?Muslims?. In order to honour those who died in the name of brutality and terror, we need to accept the an offer to build a community center, preaching peace and unity.
In fact, the cultural center will have a memorial for 9/11. In that case, I honestly think the cultural center should be built even closer to Ground Zero as a memorial to those who died. There are plans for a shopping mall to be built on Ground Zero, according to the Huffington Post. To this day, there are still dead bodies that have not been recovered. How can this be justified and not have any backlash, while a cultural center being built out of sight from Ground Zero is criticized? The argument against the cultural center simply makes no sense.
Opposing the cultural center will only further anger Muslims in general, and more will turn to radical Islam as a result.
If we truly want to combat Muslim terrorists, Americans must welcome moderate Muslims in open arms and unite in order to promote peace. Until then, there?s no telling what results this controversy will bring.