[Vision2020] Obama's Mosque Support

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the "Letters to the Editor" section of today's (August 21, 2010)
Moscow-Pullman Daily News with a special thanks to Dr. S.M. Ghazanfar

 

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Obama's mosque support

 

Contrary to the Islamophobia rampant in much of the land, it is refreshing
to see the editorial in the Daily News ("Obama stands up for American ideals
with mosque support," Aug. 17). The Muslim community is grateful. I know
many non-Muslims also appreciate it.

 

Given the mass hysteria, the Cordoba House project as planned may eventually
be moved, yet the principle of religious freedom is sacred. Religious
persecution elsewhere, and thus religious freedom, constituted the founding
of this nation, and that's what Obama emphasized recently.

 

As the editorial suggests, "much of the hatred comes from ignorance," and
from mass fear pumped up by the likes of Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and
others. One can disregard Palin, for she is what she is, but "scholar"
Gingrich's ignorance is most appalling. Indeed, such "learned ignorance" is
reminiscent of the Crusades propaganda. And the phenomenon is not just
random - it seems well-planned.

 

Incidentally, some other mosques near ground zero have existed for years.
And the proposed Cordoba House (a community/interfaith center, not just
mosque) is at least four blocks away, invisible from ground zero. Indeed,
the name Cordoba tracks the Spanish city that was the center of learning,
pluralism and tolerance during Islamic Spain, where eminent scholars such as
Averroes (Ibn Rushd, d.1198) and Maimonides (Moses Ben Maimon, d.1204)
flourished.

 

Further, at least 60-plus Muslims also perished in the 9/11 tragedy. Many
victims' families have declared support for the project (see
www.peacefultomorrows.org/), as have many Christian-Jewish groups and the
scholarly community. 

 

As for Imam Feisal, of this project, he has been serving for years, both
under Bush and Obama administrations, as U.S. emissary to Islamic countries
to "win hearts and minds." Yet, the rabid Islamophobia does the opposite, by
perpetuating hate/violence; it feeds directly into the psyches of those
"uncivilized" monsters, the bin-Laden/Taliban types.

 

S.M. Ghazanfar

Moscow

 

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Seeya at Farmers Market, Moscow.

 

"I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit
a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others." 

 

- Thomas Jefferson

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