I have become very troubled by my own recognition that I seem to have almost come full circle in how I have resolved my personal conflict with the practice of the Islamic faith. After 9/11 until the summer of 2006, I had talked myself in to believing that the Islam faith could be limited or even prohibited from practice in the United States. If the overall leadership of Islam were to continue to claim "Death to America" and that their faith was the absolute faith of the world and that all others must be destroyed, then Islam would no longer be classified as a Religion, but could be classified as “HATE GROUP”. As such, Islam would not qualify for protection under the 1st amendment. This made sense to me back then. And I stood by it for years, until I started watching the Keith Ellison Congressional campaign in Minnesota that drew national attention because Mr Ellison would be the 1st Muslim elected Congressman and would be sworn in with his hand on the Koran rather than the Bible.
Then I started seeing Islam as something different. I started to see it as free –standing, righteous faith that was being used by the leaders of the Middle-East region. It became clear to me that the theocracy nations of Islam were either very vocal that the US was the Evil Nation or were silent and allowed for these others to high-jack their faith to distract their population. Not too unlike our own Republican Party, the Islamic Nations understands, if your people have something outside their own group that they can all focus on, then they are not focusing on what is happening in your own back yard. They need a villain.
Once I saw the reaction to the Center in NY, I knew that the villainy strategy had worked,.. and had spread. We, the US, a nation proud of our freedoms, were actually attempting to stop building of a Community Center because it was Islamic. And when opposition started to loose ground, they resorted to trickery and technicality to block the process. For me it was obvious, now that someone had started a fight against the Constitution, the Islamic Center now HAD to be built. And I have been a loud and proud supporter of the Islamic Center since. Then something unexpected happened on Tuesday (9/7/10).
Imam of the Islamic Center, Feisal Abdul Raufs gave an interview on the Larry King Show. In that interview, Raufs suggested that by NOT building the Mosque or Cultural Center, this would insight an uprising in the Islamic nations. ,… And now I find myself hesitating. I am thinking, “Hey, wait a minute! You have a “RIGHT” to build. But we can NOT be intimidated either.” I start thinking,. “Wait,.. this is a Center of Culture, and I hope for peace and the exchange cultural experiences. “
Understanding how the US political system works, we need to trust that the Cultural Center will be built. But you can NOT even suggest that we allow it to be built so we don’t “upset” other nations that would not allow any other faith inside their nations. If there is any suggestion that this is some type of appeasement, then it can’t be built. We do believe in freedom of religion, but we will not be held hostage. to paraphrase a classic statement, "we will not negotiate with criminals."
