On Muslims and Mosques
by Rev. Mark Travis
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I cannot begin to imagine the horror and carnage witnessed by the service personnel and Hawaiian natives. Two thousand four hundred and two service men lost their lives that day. One thousand two hundred and two were seriously injured. The day is etched into our memories and honored every year. The USS Arizona remains in her watery grave as a memorial and testament to the lives lost.
Then seventy years later, another horrific attack would strike our shoreline, another date will live in infamy, September 11, 2001. On that day two thousand nine hundred and five people tragically lost their lives. The tragedy claimed the lives of people of all faiths and beliefs. It claimed the lives of nationals from seventy countries as well as our own. There were legal and illegal residents working in those buildings. God loved and wept over every person who died and for every family affected by that tragedy. The ground there is sacred, it is hallowed and we need to honor it.
But we must not let the actions of a militant fringe of Islam blind us from seeing the majority of Muslims who are trying to be brokers of peace and unity. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of Japanese Americans were forced out of their homes and into internment camps. Japanese Americans businesses were boarded up or simply taken away from them. In the aftermath of 9-11 many of our Muslim brothers and sisters experienced fear and prejudice. Both of these communities were irrationally tied to aggressors and terrorists who betrayed the very essence of their religious and ideological beliefs.
There are deep passions on both sides of the question on whether it is appropriate to build a community center/mosque just a few blocks from ground zero (though people don’t seem to have a problem with the strip joints and junk food venues that are one block away).
We must be very careful not to make blanket judgments about Islam and the entire Muslim community based upon the horrific actions of a radical, fundamentalist fringe of Islam. There are zealot Christians who hunt down and murder doctors who perform abortions. There are Christians who say if you don’t believe in Jesus you will burn in hell. A zealot Christian stabbed a cab driver in New York City when he learned the driver was Muslim.
Should all Christians be judged based upon the actions of these individuals guising their hatred as the word of God? People say the community center/mosque is too close to ground zero. Well, how far is far enough? New Jersey? What if some families are fine with it? Who is to judge what is appropriate and what is not? Should we prohibit Muslims from even walking by or through ground zero?
It was not Islam that attacked us on 9-11, but a group of twisted zealot fundamentalist radicals who follow a belief that betrays the very essence of Islam. This community center/mosque can be a great opportunity for all of us to build bridges between diverse ideologies and communities of faith.