Outrage over proposed NYC Muslim community center troubling

[tbyg52]

An Insult. A Trojan Horse. Surrender.

These are a few of the many ways conservative pundits have referred to plans by a Muslim group to construct a 13-story, $100 million community center that will include a swimming pool, an auditorium, an art exhibit, bookstores, restaurants and a mosque three blocks from Ground Zero.

According to the group behind this venture, this complex, the Cordoba House, will serve as a "community driven center" and will promote "integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture."

The Cordoba Initiative, the organization that is funding the construction of this building, was founded by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

Abdul Rauf appeared on 60 Minutes shortly after the 9/11 attacks asserting that "fanaticism and terrorism have no place in Islam." He has worked with the FBI and has long been a leading Muslim voice condemning terrorism. He insists that this community center will be open to people of all faiths and will serve to build bridges between the different communities.

http://www.thedaonline.com/opinion/outrage-over-proposed-nyc-muslim-community-center-troubling-1.1502117

[Lucky Luciano]

1. I can't believe anyone has the energy to militantly oppose this. nt

[BobTheSubgenius]

2. Some people look for things to be offended about.

They LIVE for confrontation. I know the phenomenon well, but my experience is more in microcosm.

[Igel]

3. I don't militantly oppose it.

I find the Cordoba Initiative, the group behind it, to either really not understand the history they claim in their mission statement or to understand it and not present truthfully what their mission is. The options are limited.

"Cordoba Initiative aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, bringing back the atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago."

Eight hundred years ago in Iberia the Almohads were in charge. They were fundies, they treated their charges--the non-Muslims--rather nastily. Go back a couple hundred years more and perhaps their claim, that it was tolerant when compared to Dark Ages Europe, might stand.

So, do they just not understand the history of Cordoba, i.e., what they're named after and claim as their inspiration?

Or do they actually rather like the "atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect" that reigned c. 1210 in Almohad Cordoba? There was tolerance--the lesser folk weren't exterminated, after all; and respect, at least from the lessers to those greater. Quite peaceful and harmonious, everybody working together for the Almohad occupiers and colonizers.

I'd note that in 1212--that would be 798 years ago--the Almohad army suffered a fairly large loss as the result of a crusade. Of course, as was common, the crusade was preceded by a fairly large attack by some Muslims--in this case the Almohads--against a chunk of Christian-held territory in 1211. The loss in 1212 is considered to be a tipping point, all right. Pivotal in the Reconquista, driving invaders out of Europe, it helped bring Spain and Portugal to power. That allowed them to try to find a way around the Muslim monopoly on trade with the Indies--leading to Columbus and the New World. Soon Spain & Portugal broke the Arab monopology on the black slave trade.

Yep. Quite some tipping point.

[tbyg52]

5. What interesting information - thank you.

Yeah, I'm no historian, but I find it difficult to believe there was a time when religions got along together.

[rbixby]

4. I'm going to start protesting the building of churches in my area

Not because I'm opposed to them, but to show them what its like when the shoe is on the other foot. Can you imagine these kind of protests surrounding the building of a megachurch somewhere?