By Dan Lieberman

The debate on a specific Islamic Center has revealed a subtle effort to position the Muslim community to a status similar to that of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, as dhimma, giving it right of residence in return for taxes, and limiting its right of expression as a minority subjected to the will of the majority. This effort is driven by an American psyche nurtured from fear of a growing force which it has been taught to contend and by a Christian leadership, which suspects loss of domination and of being forced to share economic and social control with the world’s second largest and fastest growing religion. The problem with the Islamic center near ‘ground zero’ is two fold: The subdued presence of functioning Islam has become a major presence, and the planned mosque has preempted Christian worship presence close to the 9/11 site. The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed in the 9/11 attack, has not been rebuilt and no church has been planned close to the new World Trade Center.

In the controversy concerning the construction of an Islamic Center, known also as The Cordoba House and Park 51, the rhetoric becomes harsher and the antagonists become more polarized. It’s time to note: Although the Muslim-American community needs to take care that its adherents don’t commit violent crimes against the nation in the name of Islam, it does not need to defend itself for legitimate and legal actions of its followers. Just the opposite; those attacking the construction of Cordoba House should be forced to defend their attempts to deny others their constitutional privileges and normal expressions, while they stimulate adverse reactions from Middle East peoples who will be enraged by the anti-Muslim action.

It is understandable that the citizens of an overwhelming Christian nation, who have been attached to rigid beliefs, would hesitatingly approach another religion whose beliefs, holidays, doctrines, social codes for more extremist women, and worship are alien to them., which are not much different from orthodox Jewish observances and social codes for their women. Islam is not a cult; it has 1.2 billion adherents and survives nicely and without damaging problems in a great part of the world. Certainly the world’s leading democracy and promoter of religious freedom can be equally accommodating. However, the falsehoods, which feed an incitement against Islam, indicate that accommodation is not desired.

Why is there an effort to relate the entire American Muslim community to the 9/11 attack by foreign terrorists and to local attacks by disillusioned Muslims?

Did Great Britain, relate the Catholic Irish community to IRA attacks in England?
Have Kurdish Turks been accused of being accomplices to Kurdish attacks in Turkey?

Has Spain isolated the Basque community due to Basque separatist terrorism?

Are the disapproving statements from some relatives of 9/11 victims, who have not complained of strip clubs in the area, a sufficient reason to determine who builds what and where?

Public decisions are based on constitutionality, logic and benefit to the community and not by emotional protest. Logical reasons to question construction of Cordoba House exist, but not made prominent. Park 51 is presently a vacant property looking for either resale or a customer to renovate the building and turn it into a profitable enterprise. The funds needed to establish the Islamic Center, a mere 100 million dollars, are still at ‘ground zero.’ The funding task is huge and its success is questionable. With the adverse publicity, it is doubtful that the project’s spokesperson, Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf, will be able to raise any money at all. Enough reasons to question the project and argue against it. Nevertheless, an original complaint by an undisclosed minority of relatives of 9/11 victims has been used as a ‘call to arms,’ to the formation of an organized campaign to limit the public presence of Muslim organizations. Seventy percent of the American public has answered the call, showing the world ambiguities, hypocrisy and contradictions in American life and, more importantly, how Americans can be naively drawn into a contrived plan to marginalize Muslim Americans.

One frequent comment: “American Muslims are attempting to convert all of us and must be stopped.”

Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses occupy street corners and public places all over America with pamphlets to ‘set us free.’

Christian Fundamentalists construct gigantic churches and present multitudes of television programs to convince Americans to follow their word from God.

Baptists and Catholics mold the minds of their faithful and work diligently to expand their messages and their devotees.

American missionaries roam the world seeking converts to worship the words of one person, the son of their God.

Islam in America does not demonstrate extreme efforts to convert others, except in prisons, and this effort has managed to rehabilitate many hardened criminals.

Another comment: “The construction of these Islamic centers is only the first step for the Muslims to slowly take over the USA.”

A large gathering of apocalyptic Christians, driven by the proposition that return of Jesus requires that Jews return to Israel and rebuild the Temple, and a mighty pro-Israel lobby subvert U.S. foreign policy in favor of a foreign nation. For sure these powerful lobbyists are contributing to the scheme by which American Muslims are made to feel uncomfortable if, as other Americans, they criticize U.S. foreign policy.

Then there is: “Islam is a retrograde religion which prevents progress.”

Islam has its Luddites and those who feel industrial society dampens spirituality, breeds a mind numbing materialism, and provides salvation in egotism, selfishness, and greed. They are not alone in these observations. For the record: Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, which has brought great progress to Turkey, is a quasi Islamic Party.

Indonesia, the most populated Islamic nation, Malaysia and Thailand are all Asian tigers, Saudi and Arabia and the Emirates have highest per capita incomes and are as modern as any western nation. As for Muslims in the United States, a 2006 survey showed that only thirty percent regularly attended mosques, 62% had obtained a bachelor degree or higher, double the comparable national figure for registered voters, and 43% households had a household income of $50,000 or higher

Do Arab Muslims have justified complaints?

Consider that the western world betrayed the Arab world after World War I by ignoring the rising nationalism and engaging in secret agreements that created nations and their borders from the fallen Ottoman Empire and by installing self-serving monarchs to rule the nations, all for one purpose; to gain economic advantages and spheres of influence. This was followed by attacks against nations that demonstrated nationalist tendencies, culminating in the joint French-British-Israel attack on Egypt after Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser seized control of the Suez Canal. The incessant wars the U.S. has waged in the last 60 years, from Central America to North Asia to South Asia have now shifted to the Middle East, twice with Iraq and ongoing in Afghanistan. Add U.S. support for Israel in its oppression of the Palestinians and Muslims might have a right to feel uncomfortable with the United States and its European allies. The more fanatical easily turn discomfort into aggressive retaliation and the fear of others into the repression of others.

It is true that Christianity cannot gain a foothold in much of the Islamic world and has been subjected to abuse in several nations – in Indonesia, Egypt and Sudan and present day Iraq. However what seems to be religious conflicts, often actually has economic roots. In Indonesia, Muslim and Christian traders fought over cacao fields after the price of chocolate spiked. Islam has its failures and these failures cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, why single out Islam?

Hindus in parts of India have been accused of subduing Muslims and Sikhs.
Sri Lanka Sinhalese have completely subdued Tamil Hindus

Northern Ireland Catholics rebelled against subjugation by North Ireland Protestants.
Wars were fought in Yugoslavia because of accusations that Serbs subdued Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Wars were fought in Lebanon because Muslims accused Christians of dominating them.

Israeli Jews completely dominate Muslim and Christian citizens, reducing them to 2nd class citizens.

If Christians rightfully complain about their treatment in Muslim nations, they must also recognize that their once thriving communities in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, as well as in Israel proper, have been mostly destroyed, deprived of social, political and economic power. Christians have been reduced to a struggling minority in historical Palestine. Go to the once Christian village of Ein Karem, now part of West Jerusalem, and notice that the house on15 Ha-Ahayot Road has a sign: Israeli home, while nearby a home converted to a museum has a plaque: This house of love and peace was built by the Raheel family, Allegro and Jabel Raheel, whose love was stronger than religion, who lived here until May 1948.

By reacting to a supposed rise of Islam in Christian America, and not reacting to their government’s failure to counter violations of religious rights throughout the word Americans show hypocrisy and lack of fortitude. Rather than concentrating on accusing a relatively well behaved Muslim community of violence, why don’t these same forces concentrate on reducing violence in the nation; one of world’s most violent and with the largest prison population? Don’t they realize in the present Iraq, Christians, Circassians, Turkmenestans and Assyrians are being severely attacked? Don’t they know that their State Department supports the more intolerant nations in the world, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Add Israel because of its demand to be called a Jewish state? Is this the Middle Ages or the 21st century?

The lessons of the dispute concerning Park 51 are: Religion is not a force for peace and reconciliation, nefarious forces will seize opportunities to advance their agendas and deny others a means to counter the agendas, and Americans have still not learned the meaning of freedom. For sure, Park 51 will not be constructed, but the house of intolerance will add another room and Muslims throughout the world will note the hypocrisy in America’s bid to spread democracy to their nations. .

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Dan Lieberman is the editor of Alternative Insight, a monthly web based newsletter.

He can be reached at alternativeinsight@earthlink.net