OF MOSQUES AND MEN
Last week I had a great visit from some friends of mine from Virginia. They wanted to see our fair city as most of out of towners do. So my wife and I, with our kids, trekked them into the city. One of the sites they wanted to see was ground zero so, of course, we took them there.
Ground zero is now a busy construction site and there is not really a whole lot to see. In spite of this, it still pains me to go there. It also still hurts every time I look at our beautiful skyline with the two missing pieces forever etched in my mind. I wish I could forget but I can’t. On September 11, 2001 we lost nearly 3000 fellow New Yorkers, we lost the symbols of our city’s wonder and greatness but we also lost so much more.
We lost our sense of security because it seems we can never really believe we are safe again. We also lost our innocence because we experienced an unspeakable horror. Those who did the deed and those behind it hoped and prayed to Allah that 50,000 of us would die and that our city would economically, socially and spiritually collapse. They wanted more than the towers, they wanted us. But for the grace of God, they would have gotten their wish.
Not content with the 1993 attack, the terrorists tried again and on 9/11 they succeeded. But they weren’t content with the carnage they caused on that dreadful day. They’ve tried again and again to do our country and our city more harm. In their thinking they should not stop until they have destroyed us or killed themselves in the process, because after all we are the great satan - the infidels against whom the jihad most be fought and won.
After our short visit to ground zero my friends asked me to bring them to the site of the controversial proposed “Ground Zero Mosque.” In less than a New York Minute we were there. When I stood at the corner of Park Place (the street where the Mosque will be built) and Church Street I was flabbergasted. Without exaggeration, this Mosque is being built at Ground Zero. If, on 9/11, you had been standing on the spot where I took my friends that day you would have met your Maker.
The building of a Mosque here is not an issue of rights granted by our Constitution. It is not an issue of religious rights but it is an issue of doing what’s right. Clearly it is insensitive and it could be construed as being malicious. Please remember, for the Islamic terrorists, flying the planes into the towers was an answer to their prayers vindicating their hatred of America. Sadly and tragically this is the thinking of many in the Muslim world, even many who live in this country, even some who worship in this city.
If the Mosque is built, on Fridays (every Friday) and on holy days the call to prayer will go out and the faithful will gather and proclaim “Allah is great” in the shadow of one the greatest atrocities ever committed in the name of Allah. Just writing of it nauseates me. What is equally as bad is that many who pray on those days will be quietly giving thanks to their god for the devastation caused on 9/11 on that very block ---an event that they believe was an answer to their prayers.
Our President and Mayor have weighed in on this issue and they are wrong--- ridiculously wrong. I am sure that a great number of Muslims are peace loving people. I am also sure that far too many Muslims for our comfort have sympathies toward the radicals. Listen closely for unapologetic outrage from Muslim leaders next time Christian missionaries are executed like they were in Afghanistan last month. Tune in to talk radio, network news or surf the web when the next bombing or hijacking or senseless murder of innocents occurs in the name of Allah. As hard as you try, you will not find an unqualified condemnation. The best you will get is “Not all Muslims are like this”. What we should hear is that those who have done these deeds are contemptible and damned. That the perpetrators are not martyrs but murderers. What we get is a whole lot less.
The building of the Mosque at ground zero would not be a celebration of our pluralistic society but rather a supreme example of insensitivity and bad taste. I am not bigoted and intolerant for suggesting this project go elsewhere. To make this type of accusation toward me and others who feel this way is to be bigoted and intolerant. Over the last nine years, I have watched our city slowly move forward toward healing. I have been to the firehouses, I have spoken to the first responders, I have been to the yearly memorials. I don’t appreciate the horrific wound caused in the name of Allah being re-opened in the name of Allah. If those in the Muslim community genuinely want to promote healing they could learn a lesson from the Jews, the Catholics, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Baptists and the Presbyterians, they could build a hospital.
Dave Watson
An Urban Christian
