I am writing on Friday afternoon, and the reader will read this article on Saturday, which coincides with the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11. While the debate over the construction of an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York rages on, an American pastor chose to commemorate this anniversary by burning copies of the Quran, all while American Muslims opted to hold low key celebrations of Eid al-Fitr, out of respect for the victims of terrorism. The population of the United States is comprised of 320 million people, including about 300 million Christians. Rev. Terry Jones represents a congregation of 50 members in Florida called the Dove World Outreach Center, and it seems this means outreach with the entire world except the 1.2 billion Muslims. All of the senior officials of the Obama administration criticized the burning of the Qurans, some out of conviction and some other for fear of possible retaliations and damages to the interests of the United States. Yesterday, the so-called pastor said that he will cancel the Quran burning event after he reached an agreement with a local Imam, before claiming again that the Imam lied to him and did not announce whether he will cancel the Quran burning today or will carry on with his plans to do so. Pastor Jones was a hotel manager before turning to religion, and makes his living selling used furniture, while his ‘subjects' work for him on low wages. He wears a pistol on his side, and has placed, outside of his church, signs that say “Islam…Is of…the Devil”. He also admits that he has never read the Quran and that he knows nothing about it. Jones has definitely gained some fame after he declared an “International Burn a Quran Day”, but gained nothing more. His church's neighbors in the town of Gainesville are against him, and will march today also in protest. Rev. Larry Reimer from the United Church of Christ announced his objection and said that verses from the Koran will be read in the town's churches, in solidarity with the American Muslims. Meanwhile, the bank demanded immediate repayment of the church mortgage from Jones, while his property insurance has been canceled. For two months or more now, I have been collecting all available material on the Islamic center near Ground Zero. The project's name was changed from “Cordoba House” to “51 Park” in reference to the building's number in the street where a 13-storey structure will rise, with a space allocated for worship in the last two floors. The project will cost one hundred million dollars. I have enough on the subject to outnumber the material on the peace process or the war in Iraq, and I can say in full confidence that the American far right including the neoconservatives, Likudniks and lobbyists, was much smaller in number than the supporters of the center's construction, who include many Jews. However, the right waged a successful scaremongering campaign that made 70 percent of the Americans oppose the construction of the center in the location in question. The Likudniks are ‘barkers', and of those most despicable amongst them is Frank Gaffney who wrote an article attacking Sharia which he started with these words: As I looked out at the thousands of people assembled near Ground Zero to oppose the construction of a mega-mosque there… First of all, it is not a mega-mosque. It is a community center. Secondly, it is not ‘there', but is two blocks away from Ground Zero on one hand, and four streets away on the other hand. And thirdly, the talk about the Sharia must be as baseless as the start of the article, and so I will let its author taste his own poison. Another example is David Horowitz, an extremist who supports Israel and her crimes and works behind organizations and websites hostile to Islam and Muslims. I read a debate between him and Daniel Luban on the topic of the Islamic center. The latter is also Jewish but is the reverse of Horowitz and the extremists. In the debate, he managed to expose Horowitz and his thinking. However, from six pages, I want to choose the words mentioned in one paragraph, where [Horowitz] says that the dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for wiping Israel off the map. This is a famous lie, because Ahmadinejad called for the removal of the Israeli regime, i.e. to change the regime and not to eliminate the Jews. He also claimed that while the Palestinian Authority opposes a Jewish state, it is negotiating with the fascist government, which means that it recognizes it, and thus a solution, if reached, will also include an agreement over the names of the two states. Horowitz said that the charter of the ‘terrorist' group Hamas calls for eliminating Israel, but this is old and Hamas recently declared that it accepts the two-state solution. At any rate, Hamas is a national liberation movement and it is Israel that is terroristic. Horowitz then claimed that Hezbollah is the largest terrorist army in the world with 30 thousand rockets or more provided by Syria and Iran, and I say that it is Israel that has the largest terrorist army in the world. As for Hezbollah's rockets, the arrogant extremist Horowitz speaks as though he counted them himself, and all I have to say about the 30 thousand rockets is ‘God willing they have them', and congratulations to Hezbollah. Then there is Pamela Geller, a blogger and activist in the U.S whose stated goal is to prevent the ‘Islamization' of America. I think she is an ‘artiste' and a fame seeker similar to the prostitutes of the Torah, and yet, she has many followers who are as crazy as they are stupid. What is better than all of the above, and certainly better than the so-called pastor Terry Jones, is the National Council of Churches (NCC), which is a large gathering of churches of various denominations in the United States. The NCC issued a statement signed by 40 leaders that included Protestants, Catholics and Jews from the J Street moderate lobby supporting the construction of the Islamic center in the selected site, and criticizing those objecting to it. The opponents of the Islamic center had the audacity to attack the NCC and other American figures, including some from the right, for supporting the center. However, all I ask the Arab reader for, as he follows the far right, is not to forget the peace seeking moderates. [email protected]
