[Preface: I asked Sean to write a few words about the Ground Zero mosque. I've edited this slightly for clarity.]
How The Mosque Disrespects the Dead
By Sean.
When my wife left for work on the morning of September 11, 2001, Manhattan looked the same as every other day. The skyline was a familiar frame where we had lived for most of our lives. Looking up through the shafts of steel, the blue sky gleamed. We talked about going out for dinner that night. With my parents staying at our place, we could leave our son with his grands. She wanted to sit on a patio and enjoy the nice weather. About an hour after I had said goodbye to her for the last time, the city changed forever. Terrorists using hijacked aircraft destroyed the buildings where we worked. The skyline was no longer the same, but the soul of the city changed as well. A black cloak lay over the city, smothering us with grief. After a few years, the citizenry adjusted to “The New Normal”. We were not the only ones. Families of the heroes on Flight 93, and the people in the Pentagon had a transformative new reality to assimilate into their experience. The whole country understood we were at war with the people and yes, the ideology, of the people who had committed these cowardly acts.
Almost as soon as workers began to haul away the rubble, a group of 9/11 families began a campaign to force the city to look for human remains in the debris that was shuttled off to Fresh Kills. The families have generally been unsuccessful. The city says it is too expensive to look for every scrap of human remains. The bodies will forever be mingled with the garbage that the city of New York throws away. Of all the political causes that arose out of the 9/11 attacks, this one touched me the most. I’m enraged that some of the dead are being treated like garbage. Many still remain in that pit and though I hate the fact that they met their untimely deaths there, I was at least consoled by the promise of a beautiful, respectful memorial where the families could grieve and the city could restore its faith in the goodness of humanity.
A decade later, the pit remains where my former office building dominated the southern tip of Manhattan. Two blocks away, a mosque will be erected, declaring victory in the place of the Twin Towers.
Now there is no place for the dead. The choice between a garbage dump at Fresh Kills or in the shadow of a mosque is a slap in the face to every single victim from the city of New York. I expect this from radical Muslims. They came here to kill us. The fact they would also piss all over the graves of the dead is perfectly in character. But the city of New York and Mayor Bloomberg have to be ashamed for allowing the three thousand dead to be disrespected this way. They could have stopped it but they welcomed it in the name of political correctness.
Will the mosque be allowed to issue its adhan five times a day? The thought of visiting the Ground Zero memorial, if it is ever built, and hearing the Muslim calls to prayer, would be enough to make me sick. The irony of this seems lost on the ruling class who have remained silent on the issue. For the families, it is a reality that must be confronted. It is like killing them all over again.
There are over 100 mosques in the five boroughs of New York. If they need more space, they can build one somewhere else. Building a mosque so the shadow looms over the bodies of my wife and friends is not a legitimate choice for anyone who cares about peace and respect. Ground Zero is a grave. In June, a new batch of remains were found. This is a decade later! I have no doubt that remains will continue to be found for many decades. Muslims shouted Allah Akbar as they killed my wife and friends and scattered their bones all over the city. The least they could do is let the dead rest in peace.
I am not a muslim , nor am I American, so I am looking at this from the perspective of an outsider. I can absolutely understand why non-Muslim Amercians don’t want a Mosque anywhere near Ground Zero and I can absolutely empathise with that- if I had lost someone in 9/11, I suspect I would feel exactly the same way. However, it is important to remember that the Taliban attacked the US, not Islam and not all Muslims- as you know, many Muslims were killed in the World Trade Centre that day and their families have a right to grieve too. Unless the mosque is right on ground zero, where clearly it would be inappropriate (as would a Church or a Synagogue), I think it should go ahead.
Them first.
If it was so important to remember, then “moderate” Muslims would do it and be mindful of how this will appear to others. The thing is, they really aren’t trying to co-exist. They were (and are) on the same side as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, in sufficient numbers to dictate a prudent caution among the rest of us.
If the folks behind this are so very different from those who murder in Mohammed’s name, they should prove it by acting differently and speaking differently – not by demanding that New York capitulate to their wishes.
“At least 19,” as Iowahawk recently remarked. Those responsible do not think of them as innocent victims to be mourned, but martyrs to be celebrated by shouting victory five times a day over their powdered bones.
Just because this involves fewer exploding buildings, doesn’t mean it’s not part of the jihad – advance the cause of Islam by diplomacy, coercion, terror, war, or the more modern weapons of collective guilt and loss of will among the infidel.
“Those responsible do not think of them as innocent victims to be mourned, but martyrs to be celebrated by shouting victory five times a day over their powdered bones.”
No, but I am pretty sure their families are in mourning.
I am someone who thinks all religion is good for mankind (and I use the term religion in its widest sense, to include even atheism). I am an atheist, however I see merit in all the world religions, including Islam. That is not to say I like everything the main world religions have to say, far from it. It is dogma that is so destructive and so dangerous and this is what we need to fight against. This can only be done by building bridges. I cannot see how banning this mosque will do anything other than to deepen the divide.
Premise. Predation is a necessary check that prohibits one species from destroying all others. A society whose moral ideals inhibit its own defense is a society doomed to destruction by those predators it defines as immoral. … All primate units struggle for ascendance, the weaknesses of many sheltered by the strength of a few. Conventional human conduct—trappings of respect, ceremony, alliance, and ritual—are added later to maintain the comforting illusion of a sentimental civilized world…”–Randy Wayne White
Randy sounds like a barrel of monkeys….
Pumpkin…If the objective was to provide a place for families of innocent Muslims killed on 9/11 to pray and grieve, then a small mosque would certainly suffice. The currently-proposed project, though, is on a very large scale, and certainly carried implications of triumpalism. To refuse to see this seems to me to be willful blindness.
Hi David, I am not being willfully blind- I hadn’t appreciated the scale of what is being proposed (I don’t live in the US and haven’t seen a lot of the detail). I am wondering how something so lavish can be afforded in that part of New York? I can certainly see how something on this scale could be seen as triumphalism and I don’t understand the motives of those proposing it. I agree there needs to be some balance here.
Amen, Sean. Amen.
Thank you for writing this. It means a lot.
The BBC is running an article on this, inviting comments from people in the US, in case you are interested in commenting:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10973459
Thank you, Tracey.
Pumpkin, al Qaeda attacked America, not the Taliban. While I appreciate your open-mindedness, I do not require the moralizing of a person who is so ignorant about the fundamental question of whose smoke I was choking on or who was flying the plane when my wife died. Your tolerance is inviting another attack and may God or whoever your athiest “religion” worships prevent you from ever having to put those weak, childish beliefs to the test by placing you in the center of it.
I am sorry Sean, I don’t know what prompted me to wade into this debate and if I could delete my comments I would.
Sean,
Thank you for your words. They are right on point.
I’m very sorry for your loss.