By Paul Dunn - Sunday, August 15, 2010
In 1997, years before the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks on New York's World Trade Center, members of Manhattan's Muslim community had officially begun steps to construct Cordoba House.
This was to be a large 13-story Islamic cultural and prayer -center two blocks north of what would ultimately and tragically become Ground Zero - site of the terrorists' air attacks and resultant deaths of about 2,750 victims, including, paradoxically, many Muslims.
Without the 9/11 attacks, the center would have been built years ago and now be well attended by devout Muslims and visitors, just as traditional mosques and cultural centers are in the other boroughs of New York City.
To many in the so-called "Bible Belt," the idea of an Islamic cultural center and prayer site is an alien concept. That's because most of the more than 1,200 mosques in the United States are found in California, New York and Michigan, where Iranians, Pakistanis, Indians, Turks and Arabs from every Islamic nation live in peace, many for generations.
Historically, however, North Carolina is the exception. Our state has been particularly welcoming to Muslims. There are five mosques in Charlotte, four in Raleigh, three in Winston-Salem and Fayetteville, two in Asheville, Durham, Matthews, Wilmington and one each in Clemmons, Conover, Dudley, Gastonia, Morganton, New Bern and Rocky Mount.
The controversial Cordoba project will add about $100 million to Manhattan's already weak economy, including new employment, land and construction costs. Had 9/11 not occurred, few would have opposed such a holy shrine.
But now Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Fox News' talking heads and scores of demagogic politicians loudly oppose the center's construction in lower Manhattan. They and some 9/11 survivor families argue that it will be viewed as "the triumph of Islam over the United States."
Other 9/11 families have told New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they favor the project as a healing presence in the once united city. Many others support the center as long as it is built far away from the attack site.
Three-term Mayor Bloomberg favors the Islamic center. He's been supported in his stand by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, which just voted 9-0 to deny granting landmark protection to aged buildings in the area of lower Manhattan where the Islamic center will be built. The site is presently occupied by a badly damaged, 152-year-old eyesore, an abandoned clothing warehouse with the Monopoly-board address of Park Place and Broadway.
A liberal Republican of Reform Judaism belief, Mayor Bloomberg has taken a strong stand that is belatedly supported by the Anti-Defamation League, which originally opposed the Cordoba project, preferring it be located elsewhere in the city.
The ADL now agrees that "to fight it is counterproductive to the healing process." The mayor told New Yorkers that "to cave in to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists - and we should not stand for that. There is no neighborhood in this city that is off limits to God's love and mercy."
Although I haven't heard the argument made that the Cordoba center can be viewed as a fitting memorial to innocent Muslims killed on 9/11, a good case can be made that it will.
Here's The New York Times' list of Muslims murdered on 9/11:
Samad Afridi, Ashraf Ahmad, Shabbir Ahmad, Umar Ahmad, Azam Ahsan, Ahmed Ali, Tariq Amandullah, Touri Bolourchi, Salauddin Chaudhury, Abdul Chowdhury, Mohammad Chowdhury, Jamal Desantis, Ramzi Douani.
Saleem Farooqi, Syed Fatha, Osman Gani, Mohammad Hamdani, Salman Hamdani, (a 23-year old NYPD cadet, part-time ambulance driver, incoming medical student and devout Muslim), Aisha Harris, Shakila Hoque, Nabid hossain, Shahzad Hussein, Talat Hussein, Mohammed Jawarta, Arsian Khakwani, Asim Khan, Ataullah Khan, Ayub Khan, Qasim Khan, Sarah Khan, Taimour Khan, Yasmeen Khan, Zahida Khan, Badruddin Lakhani, Omar Malick, Nurul Miah, Mubarak Mohammad, Boyie Mohammed, Raza Mujtaba.
Omar Namoos, Mujeb Qazi, Tarranum Rahim, Ehesham Raja, Ameenia Rasool, Naveed Rehman, Yusuf Saad, Rahma Salie and unborn child, Shoman Samad, Asad Samir, Khalid Shabid, Mohammed Shajahan, Naseema Simjee, Jamil Swaati, Sanober Syed, Robert Talhami, Michaqel Theodoridis and W. Wahid.
Muslims killed that day who were American citizens loved their country not a whit less than any other victim of al-Qaida's wrath.
Paul R. Dunn, who spent most of his business career in Manhattan, lives in Pinehurst. Contact him at paulandbj@nc.rr.com.
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