“Those who sacrifice basic liberty for security, deserve neither and will lose both”- Benjamin Franklin.
The dust has settled, the victims buried, monuments have been built and two wars started with one coming to an end, however, a strong current of division and fear runs deep within the American empire in a post Sept 11 world. Such themes are to be expected of course. In only the second attack on American soil, over 3000 innocent people were killed and the “land of the free’s” sense of security and duty were immeasurably dented. What followed was a blind search for meaning, identity, for truth, justice and a battle against the unknown threats to the American ideology. Despite some of the military endeavours being proven flawed and quagmires of social uncertainty being created both in the west and in the Middle East, a search for identity and truth is still prevalent. The acknowledgment of such a search surpasses anti-American sentiments, the comfortable fall-back position when discussing anything Uncle Sam. It is an empire looking for composure and reason in a post-empire world. This said, such an emotional and thematic stance raises other problems and questions. True equality, true community and a reinstatement of true American values could be found in their own backyard.
We saw such themes bubble to the proverbial surface when in downtown Manhattan, a community centre was proposed. This community centre, however, was not just any community centre, it was an Islamic one. The proposed building is to be built within a stone’s throw of the Ground Zero site and has attracted the views of politicians, religious leaders, victims’ families and various pundits. The debate has also affected the almost 600 thousand Muslims who live in New York City. Many people are against the buildings construction, citing its offensive physical position and the ideological message that is being communicated by its construction. President Barack Obama, while being fairly reserved on the matter, eventually came out in support of the project saying, “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable”. The problem is that the foundation of American freedom of expression and basic liberties is in fact being severely shaken by this issue and those doing the most damage are those who refuse to acknowledge or even consider the benefits for peace both in America and throughout the world that could be achieved if the project goes ahead.
The use of the noun “Mosque” is one element that clouds the greater debate. The community centre is not in fact a mosque. The centre will contain a gym, art gallery, child care centre, a restaurant and on the 12th storey, a memorial and sanctuary in memory of the events of September 11. All of these elements will be contained within a building with clear allusions to arabesque motifs found in Islamic architecture and are reminiscent of the Institut Du Monde in Paris, which propelled architect Jean Nouvel to fame in the 1980s. All of these elements combine to create a cutting edge design in line with New York’s edgy take on architecture. There is a prayer centre on the bottom two levels of the building, but these levels are not a Mosque. They do not conform to the stringent requirements for a sanctified mosque and so is simply a quiet, tranquil area for people to pray. So in essence what is physically being proposed is a $ 120 m (US) state of the art, cutting edge, beautiful, community centre. Does such a construction sound like a ‘horribly offensive’ endeavour? Or does it sound more like a monument to peace and community strength?
As well as the physical characteristics of the centre, there has been strong debate on the message or ideology that flows from its creation. Is the American population endorsing the religion and people who committed the Sept 11 atrocity and thus spitting in the face of all those affected by the tragedy? As Marty Peretz asked in The Australian newspaper, are we endorsing “the societies across all Islam that cheered the news of the 3000 dead?” Such views are outdated, ill-informed and for the most part, spawn from ignorance.
The faux pa made by Peretz and his sympathisers is the assumption that all Muslims are the same; that the men who carried out the Sept 11 attacks and their colleagues from Al Quaeda and the Taliban are somehow related to those people from the Cordoba Initiative (the company who designed and will build the building). There are over 1.5 billion Muslims across the globe and believe it or not, 99 percent of them are exactly like you or me, with the same ideals, ethics and hatred of violent acts. To let one percent of that entire population taint our view of all Muslims is not dissimilar to letting the terrorist acts of Sinn Féin in the sixties, seventies and eighties cloud our view of all Catholics and Irish people. The facts, if you care to examine them, are that the community centre is multi-faith and secular and will be built for moderate Muslims who are also American Muslims and let us not forget, American citizens.
Instead of seeing such a building as “offensive” or directly at odds with the Ground Zero site, why not see the positive symbolic value involved? Around the world great major cities with divided pasts have monuments and buildings signifying peace, cohesion and a view to the future. Whether it is the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, the Martin Luther King Memorial in Seattle or Lenin’s Mausoleum in Moscow, all of them make a focal point of acknowledging the past, recognising the strength of peace and stability, and building a better, undivided future. The Muslim community centre has the capacity to be another great, symbolic monument for peace which could strengthen and fortify the American population against what could otherwise be a divisive issue that shakes the very foundations of the American ideology of freedom, liberty and duty.
When Thomas Jefferson drafted and set in law the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. These values were shaken by the Sept 11 attacks and the last decade has been a search for truth and justice driven by a passion and anger similar to that felt by Jefferson and his colleagues as they fought the British for independence. Jefferson went on to write in the Declaration “We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them {The British}, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends”. The construction of the community centre opposite Ground Zero is but a small step in denouncing separation and ensuring the American values of liberty and freedom are fortified within the hearts and minds of the American Population.
Those who oppose the development plant a seed of division that will grow to creep through the foundations of American society and perhaps bring into jeopardy the values fought for over 250 years ago. Perhaps it is fitting to end with the words of another great man of truth and insight who lived through similar hardships, John Donne, “No man is an island, entire of itself; Everyman is a part of the maine”. Let us hope such words ring true and liberty and community triumph over irrational division.
Cocoa
