Muslim "Mainstream and Silent Majority"
Isn't human nature incredible? We reel from the insults we perceive that others hurl at us in disrespect of our beliefs, yet we hesitate not one moment to insult and threaten and harass those who are innocent of any ill intent toward us. This, needless to say, is the universal "we", for "we" do not all subscribe to the same modus operandi.Heightened sensitivities to one's own agenda, ideology, religious beliefs, traditions, heritage appear to make some groups highly insensible to the insults they impose upon others. And so it is that we are informed through the media that Muslim organizations in the United States have chosen to highlight their presence in a most incendiary, ill-conceived and utterly incompetent manner.
The plan is to build a huge $100-million mosque and Islamic centre with all manner of social amenities, including a 500-seat theatre, daycare centre, swimming pool and basketball court, in the shadow of Ground Zero, New York. This religious edifice would be capable of accommodating 2,000 worshippers.
"We want to create a platform by which the voices of the mainstream and silent majority of Muslims will be amplified. A centre of this scale and magnitude will do that", according to the director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, backing the project. Incredibly the proposal achieved a vote of confidence at a meeting of the New York Community Board.
The community of non-Muslims in New York City appears, however, not to be at all confident that this is what they would like to see ensconced in an area that had been destroyed by the events of September 11, 2001, when Islamist jihadists struck the World Trade Centre towers, destroying that landmark and murdering almost 3,000 people.
The proposal verges on the indecent; indecent to the memory of those who died, of the people of New York who underwent a dreadful trauma, of wounds that will never completely heal due to an act that brought the world to a breathless suspension of belief.
For a religious community that screams bloody murder every time they feel slandered, this is a breath-takingly incredible move.
"What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Centre buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack? Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn't dream of such an insult. It's a stab in the eye of America." Indignant disbelief stated by the director of a group named Stop the Islamicization of America.
But there is this about Muslims; they steadfastly assert the authority of the Koran, of the righteousness of Islam, of the peaceful nature of their religion and urge all others to make an effort to understand and respect them. While in their turn they appear to be unable to grasp that respect must be mutual and genuinely shared.
The mosque proposal is an incendiary indication of disrespect.
And of course when it is pointed out that Islam - which saw the light of day millennia after Judaism, and over a thousand years after Christianity, from whose roots each followed one another sees itself as the culmination and perfection of that source - feels justified in building its holy places of worship directly over those of its predecessors.
Muslim innocence of underhanded intent prevails.
If the intention truly is that an edifice and a religious centre needs to be built on such a scale to represent the needs of the "mainstream and silent majority", then it should be located elsewhere, and quite obviously needs to be.
Perhaps if "mainstream and silent majority" Muslims featured themselves far more prominently in rejection of violent jihad they would also earn more general respect. But never to the extent, logically and emotionally, that they should feel entitled to mount their presence upon territory destroyed by fanatical coreligionists.
To do so would make of New York, heavily populated by a Jewish tradition and presence, an spiritual offshoot of what Islam has perpetrated on Judaism in Jerusalem, imposing the al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount.
Labels: Justice, Traditions, United States
posted by Pieface @ Monday, May 24, 2010
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