In the past few weeks a plan to build a mosque and community center, just blocks away from the World Trade Center city, led by cleric Feisal Abdul Rauf, has been debated across the country and the globe.
Nine years after the attack by Al Qaeda terrorists, there are still very raw feelings and very open judgment against an entire population of Americans, many of who left their countries because of the oppression they felt at home.
I know a lot of Muslims. Most, if not all, have been impacted negatively by the 9-11 attacks. Most have been looked at as terrorists when nothing could be further from the truth.
There’s a lot of “they” and “us” discussion going on, as if a religion is the enemy.
The real terrorists in the latest debate are not the Muslims, but the “real Americans” who divide and pander with hate. The real terrorists are stoking fear of people who don’t look like “us” and don’t believe like us. The real terrorists want to restrict speech and access to information. The real terrorists attack our Constitution by amendment. The real terrorists lie within our borders and look like us.
All of these issues indicate the terrorists who did blow up the World Trade Center have won. They’ve created an atmosphere of distrust and hate at home. They’ve attacked us at our weakest point, our inability to get past the hate we feel for them and the fear we have of them.
In the end, hate destroys the hater, not the hated. As bad as this was, we need to get past this, or it will destroy us.
This proposed Mosque I understand is an American issue however many Moderate Muslims here in Canada are very much against it for reasonS they claim to be justified and legitmate. As a result Tom, those who are speaking out and who are exercising their freedomS of 'speech, thought and opinion' are being highly critisized and condemned, by 'their Muslim brethern'.
ReplyDelete(Just thought I'd share that with you.)
-Brenda-
I understand the moderate Muslim concerns. There has been such a backlash against the Muslim population because of the attack on the World Trade Center, they really don't want that wound opened again with this controversy. They have been lumped together with the extremists and this doesn't make their lives any easier.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am seeing, though, are the opportunist politicians taking advantage of this issue to further their political careers. Those people, in my mind, are no better than the terrorists themselves.
We went through a period in our country with a senator from my state, Joseph McCarthy. This sure smells like that.
Re the Politicians, much here can be said the same and trust me ... you DO NOT want to get me started on the subject of the Media.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Tom! Have a great evening.
-Brenda-