Commentary by walford
Let us bear in mind that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a Holocaust denier, refuses to classify HAMAS as a terrorist organization, blames the West for all Islamic terrorism, is a leader of a group that preaches murdering homosexuals and subjugating women, etc.
The name for this site, "Cordoba House" is telling. Córdoba was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate's outpost established in Spain when the Muslims conquered, Islamicized and added Iberia to an empire that expanded by force. As someone of partial Spanish descent, I find this to be particularly offensive.
Will this mosque 600 yds away from Ground Zero usher in a new age of multiculturalist Nirvana? Let us quote from the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him):
"When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. . . . If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them." (Sahih Muslim, book 019, Number 4294)
For those who value freedom and pluralism, to invite those who preach intolerance and Theological Exclusivism to have a place celebrating their expansionist political ideology on the site where the ashes of their victims fell is beyond unconscionable.
Having studied their culture and religion extensively, I cannot stress strongly enough how allowing a mosque at this location will be interpreted in the Islamic world. It will be taken as a sign of surrender on our part and that their conquest is Divinely Blessed.
To expect Western-style negotiation and compromise from them therefore is dangerously naive. It is a one-way street with them because Islam has yet to undergo a Reformation. There is a reason why synagogues or churches in Islamic countries are few and far between.
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Interesting, indeed. This puts a new spin on things, certainly, since I wasn't aware of this Imam guy's background. And what I know of Islam itself comes mainly from a 30 Days episode in which a Christian lived with a Muslim family for a month and learned about it in order to better understand another side.
ReplyDeleteStill, it's important for us to not interpret too literally what's written in this or the Bible or any other religious text. In my own spiritual path which has become far more eclectic than I would've thought, I feel that I must now do a little bit of research into Islam for my own benefit. It seems that the radicals take segments of the Koran that can be twisted to suit their own fanatical purposes, but that there's a much bigger picture that so few truly understand.
Just because there are so few synagogues and churches in various parts of the Middle East doesn't mean that we shouldn't express more religious tolerance here by allowing another mosque to be built. And near Ground Zero, which wasn't initally created by your average Muslim but by fundamentalists, perhaps that would be a good message to the Muslims of this country who aren't all about blowing up the enemy. We're never going to get rid of the fundamentalist faction, be they Christian or Muslim or anybody else with an axe to grind. And perhaps this challenge, along with every other difficult thing to understand, is part of being human. To not expect everyone to be the same, but to learn about other cultures and other religions and practice the values of being good and tolerant of others.