Cordoba House:  Hope From the Ashes of Tragedy

by Sheila Musaji

Note:  First published May 31, 2010 - updated and reorganized 9/4/2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHO WERE THE VICTIMS OF 9/11?
WHY A CULTURAL CENTER & MOSQUE & WHY IN THIS LOCATION?
WHY THE NAME CORDOBA HOUSE?
LEGITIMATE CONTROVERSY OR BIGOTRY?
WHO ARE IMAM FEISAL & DAISY KHAN?
- IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF & DAISY KHAN IN THEIR OWN WORDS
- Some articles by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
- Some articles about Imam Feisal and Daisy Khan
SUPPORT FOR THIS PROJECT
OPPOSITION TO THIS PROJECT
9/11 FAMILIES BOTH SUPPORT AND OBJECT TO THE PROJECT
ISSUES RAISED BY OPPONENTS AND RESPONSES
- Insensitivity and sacred ground
- Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry
- Civil rights, Constitution, religious freedom
- Claims about Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (refusal to sign apostasy pledge, Muslim Brotherhood, U.S. foreign policy statement, stealth jihadist, secret extremist, position on Sharia, taqiyya, won’t condemn terrorism, won’t condemn Hamas, Perdana
- No mosques until churches & synagogues in Saudi Arabia
- Obama a Muslim
- Funding & finances
- Security, America’s image, war on Islam
AMERICAN MUSLIM & ARAB COMMUNITY CONCERNS AND RESPONSES
BEYOND ANTI MUSLIM RHETORIC
CONCLUSION

The terrorist act that brought down the World Trade Center in NYC on 9/11/2001 was a terrible tragedy for all Americans of whatever religion.  There were 2,749 victims, including 320 foreign nationals from more than 90 countries who died on 9/11.

The victims were not identified by religion (although there are 250 whose religion is named), but no ethnicity, race, or religion was spared.  You can click here for a list of all of these innocent victims.  There have been some who have tried to estimate how many from a particular community died that day.  For example, after insane claims were made that Jews were forwarned and so did not die in the attack, some attempted to estimate the number of Jewish victims.  One site estimated that Jews accounted for 10 to 18% of victims (based on number of Jews among those victims of the 250 whose religion is named), and they come up with an estimated number of 324 Jews.

One article written soon after 9/11 noted:  “The communications director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee [ADC], Hussein Ibish, said more than 200 Arab Americans worked in the World Trade Center and many of them were killed ...  Several hundred people from predominantly Muslim countries could have perished in the attacks, according to a report by the French news agency, Agence France-Presse [AFP].  Bangladesh told AFP that at least 50 of its citizens are missing and presumed dead.  Egypt said four of its citizens are missing and feared dead.  Lebanon said two of its citizens are confirmed dead and two others are missing.  Pakistan said one of its nationals is confirmed dead but the figure is certain to rise because around 650 Pakistanis worked in the World Trade Center.  Turkey told AFP that 131 Turks are missing.”

A partial list of Muslim 9/11 victims was published by one site.  This list included Salman Hamdani, about whom the article says “the 23-year-old New York City police cadet who was a part-time ambulance driver, incoming medical student, and devout Muslim.  When he disappeared on September 11, law enforcement officials came to his family, seeking him for questioning in relation to the terrorist attacks.  They allegedly believed he was somehow involved.  His whereabouts were undetermined for over six months, until his remains were finally identified.  He was found near the North Tower, with his EMT medical bag beside him, presumably doing everything he could to help those in need.  His family could finally rest, knowing that he died the hero they always knew him to be.”

There were certainly Muslim victims.  The exact number is unknown, but many have estimated about 300 Muslims who died on 9/11.  In this tragedy as well as in many past historical events, Muslims are a part of America.  Muslims were also first responders, and Muslims were just as terrorized by this attack as any other Americans. 

Muslims have clearly and regularly denounced terrorism generally, and denounced specific instances of terrorism, including 9/11.  Their voices are simply drowned out by those who see Islam as a monolith and Muslims as something like the Borg, not individual human beings.

It is a shame that I need to open this article with yet more “proof” that Americans who happen to be Muslims are a part of America, and that building a cultural center and a mosque near the former WTC is not some nefarious scheme to take over America.  This is exactly the scenario that is now playing itself out in NYC.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan want to build an Islamic Cultural Center with many facilities including a mosque, two blocks away from the location of the 9/11 tragedy, on a site which was vacant and shuttered for 9 years until they purchased it, and where 500 worshippers already hold Friday prayers.  There are still many shuttered and vacant buildings in this Tribeca area.  The Center would be called Cordoba House, and the facilities would be a gathering place for the entire downtown community - local residents, tourists, people who work nearby -  open to all, Muslims and non-Muslims and providing important services to the entire community.  The project will be a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.  Visit their websites and see for yourself what these organizations stand for.

The Cordoba Initiative site states the reasons for wanting to accomplish this task as

Cordoba House is a Muslim-led project which will build a world-class facility that promotes tolerance, reflecting the rich diversity of New York City.  The center will be community-driven, serving as a platform for inter-community gatherings and cooperation at all levels, providing a space for all New Yorkers to enjoy.  This proposed project 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 Islamic values in their truest form - compassion, generosity, and respect for all.  The site will contain tremendous amounts of resources that otherwise would not exist in Lower Manhattan; a 500-seat auditorium, swimming pool, , library, a fitness center, public conference rooms, a basketball court, art exhibition spaces, bookstores, restaurants - all these services would form a cultural nexus for a region of New York City that, as it continues to grow, requires the sort of hub that Cordoba House will provide.

The director of the mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Fatima Shama told the New York Times: ‘We as New York Muslims have as much of a commitment to rebuilding New York as anybody.’ 

WHY THE NAME CORDOBA HOUSE?

The Cordoba Initiative is a multi-faith organization whose objective is to heal the relationship between the Islamic World and America. Working through civil dialogue, policy initiatives, education, and cultural programs, the Initiative focuses on Thought, Action and Outcomes.  The story behind Cordoba ... For hundreds of years during the Middle Ages, Cordoba was the capital of Muslim Spain. During its “golden age” from the 8th to 12th centuries, the Cordoba Caliphate witnessed a great flowering of culture, art, and philosophical inquiry amid a remarkable climate of religious tolerance. Religious freedom, although not perfect, was sufficient that many Jewish and Christian intellectuals were attracted to Cordoba, where they lived, wrote and flourished side by side with their Muslim counterparts in a strikingly pluralistic society. The largest of Cordoba’s 70 libraries was believed to contain 400,000 volumes, making it vastly larger than anything else in Europe at the time.  -  It has been announced that the project has changed its’ name from Cordoba House to Park 51.  It is a shame that the organizers of this project feel the need to buckle to pressure in this way.  7/18/10 See also:  Charlton Heston’s ‘El Cid’: A Hero for Our Time , David Shasha http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-shasha/charlton-hestons-el-cid-a_b_679711.html - Mosque’s Name (Cordoba) Isn’t Code for Islamic Conquest, Christa Brown http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=16583  - When the Moors ruled Spain VIDEO - ANDALUSIA: Finally remembering centuries of Muslims, Jews, Christians thriving together, Len Traubman http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/andalusia_finally_remembering_centuries_of_muslims_jews_christians_thriving/  - The Gifts of Al-Andaluz VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGtLJXm9p44&search=islam%20muslim%20muslimah%20allah%20peace%20educate%20learn%20world%20ignorance%20truth%20understand  - Restoring the Andalusian-Arabic Tradition in Western Civilization: An Homage to Maria Rosa Menocal, David Shasha http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/restoring_the_andalusian_arabic_tradition_in_western_civilization_an_homage/  - The Muslim Expulsion from Spain:  An Early Example of Religious and Ethnic Cleansing, Roger Boase http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_muslim_expulsion_from_spain_an_early_example_of_religious_and_ethnic_cl/  - The Expulsion of Muslims from Spain, Prof. T.B. Irving http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_expulsion_of_muslims_from_spain/  - Convivencia or Anti-Semitism?  The Iberian Paradigm of Tolerance and the Slippery Slope of Jewish Revisionary Self-Hatred, David Shasha http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/convivencia_or_anti_semitism_the_iberian_paradigm_of_tolerance_and_the_slip/

LEGITIMATE CONTROVERSY OR BIGOTRY?

The organizers of this project (and the entire Muslim community in North America) are being maligned.  It would be understandable if people were asking to know something about Imam Feisal and Daisy Khan and whether or not they were traditional, mainstream Muslims or were extremists.  These are individuals who are part of organizations actively working to counter extremism, and Imam Feisal is the Imam of a local mosque, Masjid al Farah (which is nearby in Tribeca and known to many Muslims as the “happy mosque”).  Masjid al Farah lost many of its members on 9/11.  They have been active community members in NYC for many years, so checking out their bona fides is a very simple matter. 

What we are seeing is very little of this sort of reasonable concern to know who the neighbors might be, but a blizzard of bigotry that paints all Muslims and the entire religion of Islam as being evil.  Here are the sort of statements being made:

an outrage, “Spitting in the Face of Everyone Murdered on 9/11”, the “Cordoba Initiative,” name itself is called “a full affront to Americans”,  “a 13 story monument to the 9/11 Muslims who hijacked those 4 airliners”, “it mocks the dead”, “soft jihad”,  “a real finger-in-the-eye to the families of those who died that awful day – and to the nation”,  “a slap in the face”, “despicable and atrocious”, “I presume that these people aren’t going to be gathering there to plan another attack”,  “offensive”, a “great insult”, “insensitivity to the families of the victims”, “grotesque and repulsive”, “ominous”, “a mosque, the place where jihadis go for spiritual sustenance”, “a decisive victory over the infidels in Islam’s march to establish its ultimate goal: the submission of all others to Islam and to Sharia Law”, a “shrine to the moongod cult”, like “building a German cultural centre at Auschwitz”, “the next phase of the invasion. First you bomb and then you occupy”, “adding insult to agony”, “Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn’t dream of such an insult. It’s a stab in the eye of America.”, “Muslims “a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists’ monkey-god”, a “sick joke”, “is this the equivelant (sic) to a dog marking it’s territory?”, a vile abomination, an occasion “to celebrate the murder of 3,000 Americans by Muslims on 9/11/01 by installing a mosque near Ground Zero as Islam’s way of claiming victory over America”,  an incubator of the ideology that drove people to suicide-attack the towers in the first place”,  “Why not just put up a flashing neon sign saying, ‘Terrorists Welcome!’”,  “hypocritical, sacrilegious, and dangerous”,  a “handy meeting place for future terrorists”,  a “constant reminder of the evil Islam is capable of”, “another 9/11 horror, an “obscene gesture to appeasement”, “outrageous, a better place would be Guantanamo”,  “Why Not Build a Memorial to Hitler in New York City’s Crown Heights?”, a “Confrontational Islamist Plan”, an Islamic mosque “waving a red flag of hate to all Americans”,  “an insulting flag of conquest of Islamic supremacism”, something that “can only be viewed as a symbol of Islamic conquest on American shores”, a Trojan horse, “a wonderful idea along the same lines as that mosque at Ground Zero thing… a nice, shiny new U.S. Military Base on the smoldering ruins of Mecca”, “triumphalist” .

These statements do not show a reasonable concern about who these particular Muslims are, but a display of hatred towards all Muslims and the entire religion of Islam.  This is an outcome of the vicious what everyone “knows” demonization of Islam industry. 

Where might such attitudes lead, particularly when they go unchallenged?  One member of the community board that approved the initial proposal has reported that “Following the meeting, I was disappointed but not surprised to find that thousands of people took to the internet to leave comments of resentment and in some cases threats of violence against the Cordoba House and the members of the community board.  It’s clear that adverse sentiment exists regarding the project, but not a single dissenter bothered to show up to the public meeting to let their opinions be known. These “emphatic” dissenters prefer, instead, to lurk anonymously and cowardly within the confines of the internet. Or can not be bothered to form an opposing view point until a reporter contacts them for comment.”

As Kamran Pasha noted “So when a progressive Muslim group like the Cordoba Initiative arises, its existence is problematic for the black-and-white worldview of the Islamophobes. When a Muslim group stands tall and says it rejects terrorism and wants to create an Islamic Center dedicated to building bridges of love and community between people of faiths, its existence provokes outrage. For the very presence of a progressive, peaceful mosque near Ground Zero invalidates the claim by both the Muslim fanatics and their mirror images among the anti-Muslim bigots that America and Islam are enemies.”

Bigotry is expected from known Islamophobes like Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Debbie Schlussel, etc.  Geller and Spencer are in fact organizing protests against the building of the community center.

But, when Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (a well known Rabbi who regularly appears on Oprah) posts an article in the Jerusalem Post which makes the same assumptions - that hurts, and it also raises serious concerns about the depth of this anti-Muslim sentiment.  It may be naive of me to expect that clergypeople would not engage in this sort of anti-Muslim rhetoric, as we have seen a great many examples of such rhetoric in the past few years.

WHO ARE IMAM FEISAL & DAISY KHAN?

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the Imam of a NYC mosque that is closest to this site.  He, along with his wife, Daisy Khan are directors of the Cordoba Initiative and the ASMA Society.  Imam Feisal is also an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at St. Joseph’s College’s Brooklyn Campus in Brooklyn, and has featured columns on the Huffington Post and On Faith.  He has published books and written hundreds of articles which clearly explain his views.  As a respected Imam and religious scholar in the Muslim community, Imam Feisal has been at the forefront of efforts to counter radicalization, to promote interfaith dialogue, and to counter extremist interpretations of Islam.  He has been crystal clear in his condemnation of all terrorism.  I find it more than puzzling that because he has also attempted to understand “why” some Muslims are prone to radicalization, “why” America’s image abroad has been tarnished, and because he has noted that American foreign policy may have also contributed to a climate in which anger towards particular policies may be exploited he has been attacked as an extremist.

The Women"s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) is one of the programs of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and the Cordoba Initiative (CI). ASMA aims to elevate the discourse on Islam and foster environments in which Muslims thrive through interfaith collaboration, youth and women"s empowerment, and arts and cultural exchange. The Cordoba Initiative works to improve relations between the Muslim World and the West by offering innovative, viable, and sustainable solutions with concrete outcomes. The mission of WISE is to build a cohesive, global movement of Muslim women that will reclaim women"s rights in Islam, enabling them to make dignified choices and fully participate in creating just and flourishing societies.  One of WISE’s ongoing efforts is the Jihad Against Violence Campaign.

IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF & DAISY KHAN IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Imam Feisal and Daisy Khan have both been interviewed by many news sources about this plan.  Here are a few quotes “from the horses mouth” about their view of why they want to undertake this project, and why they believe it is important:

Imam Feisal:  “There’s nothing like this that we know of in the United States.  This will be a community center for everyone, not just for Muslims, but non-Muslims.  ...  It’s about building an American Islamic identity, because we have second-, third-generation Muslims who don’t feel they are part of (the country).  The complaint throughout the years has been: ‘Where’s the voice of the moderate Muslims?’” Rauf said. “Well, here we are.”

Daisy Khan  “The center will “serve as a major platform for amplifying the silent voice of the majority of Muslims who have nothing to do with extremist ideologies.  It will counter the extremist momentum.  ...  three hundred of the victims were Muslim, that’s 10 percent of the victims.” “We are Americans too. The 9/11 tragedy hurt everybody including the Muslim community.”

Imam Feisal “This space [Ground Zero] has very powerful symbolism in the perception of the world.  It is important for us to be stakeholders in what this symbolism means.  What better place to show that we, as Muslims, condemn the acts of 9/11 than making this stand and making this statement here. When we say it here, we will be heard.”

Daisy Khan “It will have a real community feel, to celebrate the pluralism in the United States, as well as in the Islamic religion.  It will also serve as a major platform for amplifying the silent voice of the majority of Muslims who have nothing to do with extremist ideologies. It will counter the extremist momentum.” 

Daisy Khan  “We have a vision that is opposite the vision of the extremists.  We want to be a driving force for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan.”

Daisy Khan  “The whole purpose of the project is to create peace and harmony between our faith and tradition and also to provide a much-needed community space for Lower Manhattan.  It’s a center that will become a platform for the silent majority of Muslims whose voices do not get heard. It will show the true face of who Muslims are.  Ultimately a center like this will become a counter against Muslim extremism. We’re taking the tragedy of 9/11 and from the ashes of that, building a better place from that, a place that will celebrate co-existence, a place that will be open to everyone.”
 
See also articles by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf:

a whole collection of Imam Feisal’s articles on the Washington Post’s On Faith Blog can be found at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/ 
A Call to Bridge the Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, a sermon at al-Farah Mosque, on September 6, 2002 .  This sermon was delivered just a few blocks away from Ground Zero in the presence of more than a dozen Christian and Jewish religious leaders who also offered brief remarks about the need to create bridges of understanding.  I believe that this expresses the Imam’s views very clearly.
A Call to Conscience and a Reminder to the Muslims, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/a_call_to_conscience_and_a_reminder_to_the_muslims/
Censoring Moderates Fuels Radicals http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-anthony-libresco/censoring-moderates-fuels_b_689719.html
Center an attempt to prevent the next 9/11, Feisal Abdul Rauf
Conflicting cultural norms require respect, restraint http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2010/05/how_government_should_address_conflicting_cultural_norms.html
Religion Must Be Part of Afghan Solution http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2009/10/religion_must_be_part_of_afghan_solution.html
Religious communities must be engaged in foreign policy http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2010/02/religious_communitie