Islamic Center

I now join the conversation that is abuzz about the construction of an Islamic Center on 45 Park Place, New York City. The conversation around its building near (4 to 5 blocks) from where the World Trade Center towers stood reveals a much deeper conversation than the building of the Islamic Center. It exposes the use of political propaganda designed to produce the intense polarities within our political world with the goal of grinding this country’s political process to a halt, stalling any legislation that could bring relief to the suffering that comes with our weakened economy, and shaming the “other” side.
Those politicians who passionately oppose the Center are flaming the fires of hate and resentment that resides within the hearts of many people. While the conversation is about the Community Center at a deeper level, it is about the misconceptions we have as a culture about the Islamic religion as a whole. It is about the fear that lives within the hearts of many people that gets directed against people who differ from them. It is about bigotry. It is about political power… Those who oppose the building of the Center would be some of the first who would decry that Supreme Court justices are appointed to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and would challenge justices, not follow their political agendas in interpreting the law of the land. The Constitution is pretty clear about the right of Americans to freely practice their religion and that discrimination based upon religion is prohibited under the Constitution. If the Community Center is prohibited from developing in this location because it is too close to where the World Trade Centers stood, how far away is far enough? Will Manhattan be entirely off limits, or Brooklyn, or New Jersey, or Illinois or Alaska? Where does it stop?