Post-9/11 hatred rages on near Ground Zero
Guestblogged by Brooklynwala
Yesterday morning I was reading the ubiquitous, free “AM New York” newspaper on the subway on the way to a 
meeting and was disturbed and saddened to learn about a protest of 1,000 people in lower Manhattan against an Islamic Center being built near Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 attacks. Holding signs with slogans like, “No 9/11 Mega Mosque” and “Don’t dishonor my son’s grave,” these protestors represent the growing backlash against the 13-story community center and mosque being built by the Cordoba Initiative.
According to their website, Cordoba “aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, bringing back the atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago.” The Cordoba Initiative’s proposed Cordoba House located two blocks from Ground Zero “is about promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture. Cordoba House will provide a place where individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, will find a center of learning, art and culture; and most importantly, a center guided by universal values in their truest form – compassion, generosity, and respect for all.”
A few weeks ago, Tea Party leader Mark Williams, a frequent guest on CNN, stated that “the monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists’ monkey-god.”
Then last week, a radio talk show host in Texas went so far as to urge the bombing of the community center. CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, reported the following in a press release last week:
“In his response to a caller named ‘Tony’ who supported the right to build the planned mosque in New York — an effort that has come under rhetorical attack by anti-Islam extremists — Berry said: ‘No, no, Tony, you can’t build a mosque at the site of 9/11. No, you can’t. No, you can’t. And I’ll tell you this — if you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up… I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up, and I mean that.’”
So, what’s so threatening about a community center and mosque with a mission of promoting interfaith tolerance and “compassion, generosity, and respect for all”? Apparently a lot, if you are full of hatred and vilification of an entire community and religion, which has essentially been a mainstream phenomenon since 9/11 (when it comes to attitudes towards Muslims and Arabs).
The values of the Cordoba House sound very much in line with the values of Sikhi, and I hope to see our community supporting this worthwhile and ambitious endeavor. Almost nine years after the 9/11 attacks, our city and country still have a lot of healing to do. Creating a space like the Cordoba House near Ground Zero seems like a powerful and important step in that process.
124 Responses to “Post-9/11 hatred rages on near Ground Zero”
The lot of you have hijacked a thread and used it to exercise your ability to ostracize a group of people our own Gurus never did. I would love for any of you suggesting that Muslims are bent on massacring non-Muslims to support any of your arguments using Sikh scripture and historical precedents in our Gurus times that run corollary to your own.
So let’s see what you can come up with and I’m pointing to you, Harinder, Bik, Tajinder, KDS, and others. You posture yourselves as Sikhs, so let’s see some reasoning based entirely from Sikhi.
Since when did Sikhs employ such vitriol in their speech? Since when did we forget that the 9th Guru gave his life so that others may practice their own faith freely regardless of how antithetical it was to Sikhi? You are either completely lacking in the most basic of knowledge of Sikhi or you’re just simply agent provocateurs here to dispossess Sikhs from their most basic ethos. If you are Sikhs, you should be utterly ashamed. The vacuousness of your language serves to end any serious discourse on the subject. You spew nothing but hatred and dirt.
Since when did Sikhs employ such vitriol in their speech? Since when did we forget that the 9th Guru gave his life so that others may practice their own faith freely regardless of how antithetical it was to Sikhi? You are either completely lacking in the most basic of knowledge of Sikhi or you’re just simply agent provocateurs here to dispossess Sikhs from their most basic ethos. If you are Sikhs, you should be utterly ashamed. The vacuousness of your language serves to end any serious discourse on the subject. You spew nothing but hatred and dirt.
What’s more deserving of attention is that none of you can employ language from the Guru Granth Sahib to support your racist, xenophobic and hate filled arguments. Why is that? Because you would never find anything of such there. For shame.
But I’m compelled to clear up some of the pathetic arguments being made by even more pathetic individuals lofting their heads with inane pride and intellect.
First of all let’s clear up this nonsensical use of the term ‘liberal’, the correct term for those individuals expressing their support for Muslims to build infrastructure in a secularized, unholy, non-religious and openly capitalist and individualistic space, is a Sikh. Let’s not put qualifiers in front of Sikh, doing so shows an apathy to our Gurus teachings. Please refrain from calling a Sikh a ‘Dhimmi’ or a ‘Liberal’, you sound intellectually retarded in the sense that your recourse to serious discussion is childish posturing.
Another thing I picked up in the comments are the ignorant remarks asking if Sikhs or Muslims or any other religious group would feel as compelled to allow a Mosque or a Mandar to be built in the in their own religious grounds. First of all, this Mosque is NOT being built on exclusively religious ground and to even reason that no allowance be made for another religious group to stand near or within our own religious grounds is intolerant, granted the many Muslim Bhagats that find themselves immortalized in the Guru Granth Sahib with their teachings. Did you all forget this? Did we forget who accompanied Guru Nanak throughout so many of his arduous journeys? Or does this all not matter because some of us are more intent on meditating instead on the propagandist conflation of the Islamic worlds plight and misery with terrorism and extremism? I think the last statement holds true for many of you.
The lot of you have hijacked a thread and used it to exercise your ability to ostracize a group of people our own Gurus never did. I would love for any of you suggesting that Muslims are bent on massacring non-Muslims to support any of your arguments using Sikh scripture and historical precedents in our Gurus times that run corollary to your own.
So let’s see what you can come up with and I’m pointing to you, Harinder, Bik, Tajinder, KDS, and others. You posture yourselves as Sikhs, so let’s see some reasoning based entirely from Sikhi.
Deep Hundal,
The examples you use to back up your dhimmi beliefs shows that you have little or no knowledge of Sikhi. So Bhai Mardana was a Muslim? Read the Janamsakhis especially of the passing away of Bhai Mardana and how Guru Nanak cremated his body? Educate yourself instead of relying on books meant for little kids. I expect you knowledge of Islam is as limited as your knowledge of Sikhism. No one has hijacked this thread although the use of emotive words such as 'hijack' 'hate' and 'racist' are the first words that liberals will use they are faced with arguments which run counter to their own views. No where in the Guru Granth Sahib does it say that we need to side with people who consider us as Kafirs and hate us 'for the sake of Allah' I suppose you have looked into the background of the Imam who wants to set the mosque up, so I am a bit surprised that you still continue your support of the project. But then again Liberals tend to masochists so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Siding with those whose agenda is to eventually to destroy all other religions or make them pay discriminatory taxes isn't cool although it is trendy nowadays especially amongst dhimmi Sikhs.
Deep Hundal,
The examples you use to back up your dhimmi beliefs shows that you have little or no knowledge of Sikhi. So Bhai Mardana was a Muslim? Read the Janamsakhis especially of the passing away of Bhai Mardana and how Guru Nanak cremated his body? Educate yourself instead of relying on books meant for little kids. I expect you knowledge of Islam is as limited as your knowledge of Sikhism. No one has hijacked this thread although the use of emotive words such as 'hijack' 'hate' and 'racist' are the first words that liberals will use they are faced with arguments which run counter to their own views. No where in the Guru Granth Sahib does it say that we need to side with people who consider us as Kafirs and hate us 'for the sake of Allah' I suppose you have looked into the background of the Imam who wants to set the mosque up, so I am a bit surprised that you still continue your support of the project. But then again Liberals tend to masochists so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Siding with those whose agenda is to eventually to destroy all other religions or make them pay discriminatory taxes isn't cool although it is trendy nowadays especially amongst dhimmi Sikhs.
Islamophobic….This a alinskyite tactic to polarize anyone who has Criticism of Islam. The polarization can work for anything…. IE… If im not in favor of welfare i can easily be a racist… In the age of information nobody should be as stupid as some of the comments i see on here. PUT ASIDE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND PICK UP A HISTORY BOOK……
BY THE WAY SaintSolja DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR ME…. MY KNOWLEDGE IS ON PAR….
HOW MANY CORDOBAS ARE THERE….?
WHERE IS THE FIRST ONE………………….?
WHO IS THE MUSLIM THAT WANTS THIS?
WAHT IS HIS BACKROUND ?
The Spanish city of Cordoba was captured in 711[3] by a Muslim army: in 716. IT WAS BUILT AS A SIGN OF DOMINIANCE AFTER CONQUEST, THE FIRST MOSQUE IN EUROPE.
Faisal Abdul Rauf. GOOGLE HIM MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND… MAKE SURE TO READ WHATEVER YOU CAN ABOUT HIS FATHER.
THOES WHO INSULT ISLAM DOS NOT IN IGNORANCE BUT WITH AWARENESS OF WHAT ISLAM ACTUALLY IS. A POLITICAL SYSTEM WITH A TUMOR OF RELIGION. TOGETHER THEY ARE THE DISEASE OF MOHAMMAD…PISS BE UPON HIM.
Islamophobic….This a alinskyite tactic to polarize anyone who has Criticism of Islam. The polarization can work for anything…. IE… If im not in favor of welfare i can easily be a racist… In the age of information nobody should be as stupid as some of the comments i see on here. PUT ASIDE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND PICK UP A HISTORY BOOK……
BY THE WAY SaintSolja DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR ME…. MY KNOWLEDGE IS ON PAR….
HOW MANY CORDOBAS ARE THERE….?
WHERE IS THE FIRST ONE………………….?
WHO IS THE MUSLIM THAT WANTS THIS?
WAHT IS HIS BACKROUND ?
The Spanish city of Cordoba was captured in 711[3] by a Muslim army: in 716. IT WAS BUILT AS A SIGN OF DOMINIANCE AFTER CONQUEST, THE FIRST MOSQUE IN EUROPE.
Faisal Abdul Rauf. GOOGLE HIM MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND… MAKE SURE TO READ WHATEVER YOU CAN ABOUT HIS FATHER.
THOES WHO INSULT ISLAM DOS NOT IN IGNORANCE BUT WITH AWARENESS OF WHAT ISLAM ACTUALLY IS. A POLITICAL SYSTEM WITH A TUMOR OF RELIGION. TOGETHER THEY ARE THE DISEASE OF MOHAMMAD…PISS BE UPON HIM.
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