Ground Zero mosque starts controversy discussions
On the 11th of September is the nine year anniversary from the deadly terror attacks of the terrorists that brought so much grief in the United States and the family members of those killed in the World Trade Center gather in New York City to read names of their loved ones.
A Florida minister will hold an unusual celebration on the 11th of September: Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Church in Gainesville intends to build a scaffolding made out of Korans and set them on fire, declaring the 11th of September as the International Burn a Koran Day. Pastor Jones declares that this action is supposed to send a message to Islam, telling them that the Sharia law is not welcomed in America. He said that more than a hundred people will meet in front of the Dove World to burn hundreds of Muslim Holy Books, and those that can not reach the location will burn them on their own at their homes. Nine years have passes since this tragedy, but there is still a lot of tension related to every year’s anniversary, expressed by protests against building new mosques, fires that are put in the Muslim prayer locations and threats against the Muslim population.
This year, by coincidence, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is ending on the sacred day of Eid, calculated by the arrival of the full moon will end exactly on the 11th of September, and Muslims have already asked for police protection at their mosques. The fury felt in the community protests and politicians statements this year seems to be even greater than it was the years immediately after the terrorist attacks and is directly aimed at all the Muslims and their institutions, without making the difference between the ordinary people and the terrorists. The anger is fueled by the wars in Iraq and especially from Afghanistan, and also by acts of terrorism that took place on the United States territory, like the foiled Christmas Day, the bomb plots from Time Square and the massacre of unarmed soldiers from Ft. Hood. All of these tensions have grown when a Muslim group tried to get approval for building a new community center a block away from Ground Zero.
The rise of the anti Muslim movements are also linked to the bad state of the economy and the ones that do not trust the direction to which America is heading have turned to the right wing movement. Some say that the approach of President George W. Bush towards this tragedy is to blame, too, because he immediately came forward defending Muslims and warning the American population that they are not all to blame and nor is their religion. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, the possible candidates for presidency at the elections from 2012 from the Republicans, say that building the Ground Zero mosque will be an insult to the families of the 2001 victims, and therefore the Muslims should not be allowed to build it.
The Cordoba Center is not the only planned mosque; it is just one of the eight that are supposed to be built on the territory of the United States in California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and another location from New York. They have all encountered protests and picketing from the non Muslims living in the near by communities. It all started when President Obama declared at a White House dinner honoring the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, that they have the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero and they have the same right to practice their religion as any other ethnic group from America.
The violence acts against the Muslims remained at the same level since 2002 and in the nine years since the terrorist attacks there were reported 150 hate crimes committed against them, so their situation is not as harsh as the Jews’ for example which reported 1,145 attacks. But according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of the crimes committed against Muslims has risen in the last period of time, and the hatred suggestions seems to be coming from the top down from politicians and smaller community leaders.
Safaa Zarzour, the secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, believes that the conflicts are being fueled by the conservative political groups and says that in most of the cases when a group of Muslims was denied the right to build a mosque there were organizations like Stop Islamization of America involved. Pamela Geller, founder of Stop Islamization of America, together with her group, has bought New York City bus advertisement protesting the Cordoba House, complete with images of planes striking the World Trade Center. She says that, in her opinion, Islam is not only a religion, but a political ideology too, which has a law system that threatens the United States. Geller says that the problem is not with the Muslims, but with the way they are trying to impose their religion and the Sharia law, and considers the project of the Cordoba House mosque an insult to all the Americans, especially to those that have died in World Trade Center.
