Seventy percent of Americans are not wrong

Aug 25, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
In a previous article, I had jokingly suggested that Peeping Tom may have been smoking something when he wrote that the AFC could become the next main opposition party; now I’m convinced he must also be on drugs to have written, “Islam is not the enemy of America” (Kaieteur News August 23).
Mr. Editor, I lived through the horrors of 9-11 in New York City; my car was the last to leave Manhattan through the Midtown Tunnel before it was restricted to be used by emergency vehicles only. Then upon exiting the tunnel, I stopped on the highway as everyone else did, to watch in awe as the twin towers burn, while people were jumping to their death from about 100 stories high in an effort to escape the burning inferno. I knew people who were murdered in the cowardly attack that destroyed the World Trade Center, where three thousand innocent lives were murdered by Muslim fundamentalists who hijacked the planes that were used as missiles to hit the Twin Towers.
I believe that if Peeping Tom had relatives who perished in this deliberate attack on American soil, or even experienced what I, and all New Yorkers felt on that day that would live in infamy, he would not be suggesting that the construction of a mosque there will not represent a victory for the architects of the 9/11 attacks.
American are very proud of their Constitution, and they do respect religious freedom; but building an Islamic Center at Ground Zero in the shadow of the World Trade Center ruins has nothing to do with the rights that they have to build it there, but instead, consideration must be given to the feelings of the thousands of families who lost loved ones.
Peeping Tom gives his readers the impression that the proposed site for the building of the mosque is four blocks away from Ground Zero… quite a distance he believes, when in fact it is a mere two blocks from where the Twin Towers stood, and is considered Ground Zero because a wheel from one of the planes that hit the Towers, fell on that very same building.
In 1993, Pope John Paul II asked 14 Carmelite Nuns to move their convent from just outside the Auschwitz death camp in Germany. The establishment of the convent near Auschwitz had stirred dismay among Jewish groups and survivors who felt that the location was an affront and a disservice to the memory of the six millions Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. The well-meaning efforts by the Carmelite nuns to build a Catholic structure there, were insensitive; the same as if a Japanese religious shrine had been constructed at Pearl Harbor shortly after Japan attacked the American naval fleet there in 1942, causing the Americans to declare war against Japan. Had the more than 900 who perished during the Jim Jones massacre on November 18, 1978 been Guyanese instead of Americans, does Peeping Tom believe that Guyanese and the Government of Guyana would have allowed the construction of a “People’s Temple”  by a Jim Jones sympathizer on the same site in Essequibo or anywhere else in Guyana?
Building a mosque at Ground Zero is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right.
There are about 100 existing mosques located throughout the entire 23 sq. miles of Manhattan, so it is not a case of Muslims not having a place to worship. Sensitivity is the main concern here. The intention of Muslim leaders to “build bridges” and heal the wounds is very much appreciated, as supporters of this mosque would insist that this is intended to foster better relations between the West and Muslims, but if the people’s reaction is any indication, the mosque is opening old wounds, not healing them. Seventy percent of Americans are not wrong.
Abdul Rauf is the imam behind the plan to build the mosque and he is reputed to be a “moderate” Muslim cleric, but shortly after the attack on 9-11, he blamed American foreign policy for inciting the attack, saying that “America was an accessory to 9-11”. This mosque will be 15 stories high and will cost over US$100 million to build, of which the developers have less than US$50,000.
Imam Rauf said funds for the center will come from Muslims and members of his congregation, but a London-based Arabic-language newspaper that interviewed the cleric, reported that he said he will also raise the money from Muslim and Arab nations around the world… and he’s not ruling out Iran, one of the biggest supporters of terrorists activities worldwide, and Saudi Arabia, that would not allow Christian churches or synagogues to be built in that country, and one that practices repressive Sharia Law: where women have no rights and are stoned to death for committing adultery; and where theft is punished by imprisonment or amputation of hands or feet, depending on the number of times it was committed.
If allowed to be built, this mosque will become one of Islam’s holiest shrines as it sits upon the site of their greatest modern military victory. No one is denying the right to build the mosque, just not at Ground Zero.
Harry Gill

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