Islamophobic Media in Case of Park51
The past decade has experienced an increased growth of disdain for Muslims in the west especially in America. It has been a period where the western people have not hesitated to voice their opinions and expressions about Islam. The growing disdain, especially in America has been due to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. However, the proposal for the construction of an Islamic center close to the site of 9/11 terrorist attack provoked anti-Muslims activists who created a notion that the proposal was a scheme by Muslims in America to conquer the hallowed site of 9/11 terrorist attack. They created the notion that the Imam heading the project was an Al-Qaeda supporter. The initial name Cordoba was closely associated with the Islamic victory over Spain where the Muslim victors established a mosque on the ruins of a destroyed church. The right wing media unaffectionately renamed the center ground zero mosque. It has been a center of a heated public debate and among the media controversies in the country and the general media.
The proposed Islamic center brought about perception and the notion that it is a form American Islamization and has been linked to the radical and aggressive Islamic history. The heated debate with regard to the construction of the center is a reflection of the Islamophobia that have increasingly spread across America over the past decade. This has led to increased fear and hatred towards Muslims (Moore para 5). The construction of the center has led to an increased anxiety surrounding the conquests of Islamic religion in New York and the world in general.
Previously known as Cordoba house, Park51 is an Islamic community center that encourages multi-faith participation. The developer Sharif El-Gamal expressed that the objective of the center is to promote tolerance and understanding through arts and culture, recreation and education. This would facilitate empowerment of the community and create more opportunities for the American people to understand the world and embrace each other amid the rising notions about Muslims. It has suffered increased opposition, especially from the conservative media, which have been the most delusional and deranged in the past decade. The objection against the establishment of the center was based on the notion that the attack was carried on by Islamic terrorists and hence it would be distasteful to establish a Muslim center that promotes Islam (Salvato para 14). Therefore, establishment of park51 has been perceived as a provocative, offensive and insensitive act while the ideology owners expressed that the center will facilitate the enhancement of peace in the future.
Sharif El-Gamal expressed that the New York being a global city with different people from across the world required a center where different communities meet to promote cultural diversity. The initiative is a multinational organization based on multi-faith with the aim of improving Muslims West relations. The building was renamed after a Spanish city based a role model where peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Jews and Christians had ensued (Pilkington 8). Therefore, the objective was the direction of a multi-faith programming led by Imam Abdul Feisal Rauf. The controversy surrounding the construction of the Islamic Center was manufactured by the right wing media bloggers. It was a representation of growing Islamophobia tendencies and attitudes of anti-Muslim activists. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf accused of being an Al-Qaeda is a renowned American Muslim who had worked with the FBI and was promoting interfaith tolerance and outreach emphasizing on improved relations between Muslims and the West.
The proposed building is a thirteen storey and the conceptual design of the building has a recreation center with fitness center and a swimming pool. It also has a prayer space, an auditorium, an art studio, educational and cultural programs, as well as a culinary school. The building also has a memorial for the September 11 victims. The basic objective of the project, according to its leaders Sharif El-Gamal the owner of the building and the director Imam Abdul Feisal Rauf, the project would serve the Lower Manhattan community, through the provision of social, cultural and recreational programs. The organization presented itself as a source of enrichment to the lives of all New York residents irrespective of their backgrounds and faith.
Although the proponents of the project outlined a clear objective of the project as community based with numerous benefits to the New York community, the project has been a source of an increasing public debate with regard to its moral justification. The central objection against the project is its location, with the right wing media accusing the organization as being insensitive, provocative and offensive to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack since it was carried on by Islamic Terrorists. Right-wing misinformed media have expressed that the project was a just a mosque developed close to ground zero and the critics felt that the project is a fundamental monument for the Islamic religion. The critics associate the Islamic religion with the 9/11 attack perceiving it as simply offensive (Myerson 8). For example, McGurn of Wall Street journal compared the Islamic center with the Carmelite covenant at Auschwitz, which Pope John Paul II commanded its closure.
The argument of Mcgurn was based on the aspect that the project is against the public will, and it is not appreciated by the majority. These views were supported by numerous political leaders such as Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich expressed that the project was a reflection of Muslim triumphalism. The radical opposition expressed that as long as there were no churches in and synagogues in Saudi Arabia the Mosque should not be constructed at ground zero. The construction of the center was compared with the construction of a Nazi sign next the Holocaust Museum. Some expressed that the director of the project had worked with terrorist organizations and hence the center would be used for the recruitment and training of Sharia laws, who would later become terrorists. There were expressions from some opponents that the center would become a command center for terrorist activities and a meeting point for some of the most scariest terrorists.
Irrespective of the large base of opponents of the project, there were numerous individuals in support of the idea including public figures such as Bill Clinton the former president. He expressed that the critics should acknowledge that there were many Muslims who suffered from the 9/11 attack. President Obama, in support of the project, expressed that among the most important American values, and constitutional rights are freedom of religion. The project was highly supported New York city’s mayor Michael Bloomberg expressing the importance of tolerance and mutual respect. The majority of the American citizens does not differentiate between the actions of radical Muslims and the vast majority of peaceful Muslims in America and around the world. This has led to increased discrimination and Islamophobia.
The center was not the only Islamic project in Manhattan since there are other mosques and the media fury drawn from the project was uncalled. The building does not resemble a mosque, and it closely resembles a YMCA. The discrimination of the Muslims alienates them since they are stereotyped as terrorists assigning a collective guilt even to the peace loving Muslims. The critics object the location of the center, but there is no theoretical limits or distinction of where the project should be done. There are other numerous mosques and Islamic foundations in New York other than the Park51.
It seemed ironical that the people pushing the government to secure and ensure that the constitutional rights of the American people are upheld, were pushing the violation of the rights conferred by the constitution. Although critics express that the center is a mosque funded by Islamic extremist, the building does not satisfy the stringent requirements of a sanctified mosque. It is also a multi-faith center where people from all religions and backgrounds visit for cultural education, recreational activities and other social activities.
Islamophobia in the Right-Wing Media
The right wing-media staged numerous and baseless accusations against park51 project expressing that the center is an expression of Islamic supremacist in the US. For example, Pamela Geller expressed that the center was a reflection of the second wave of 9/11 terrorist attack. She referred to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as a jihad junket sponsored by Islamic outreaches. She described that the state department was a supporting Islamic outreaches including the picture of a falling 9/11 victim on the blog. Pamela Geller has been among the most successful conservative right wing figure blogger leading the anti-park51 in New York. She has earned a national spotlight among the mainstream conservative claiming that not only was the center as an expression of Islamic triumphalism, but also a second wave of the 9/11 terrorist attack. She described the project as a Ground Zero Mosque where Islamic extremists will assemble expressing that the construction of the center is an attack on America. She expressed that the Cordoba project is an icon of the Islamic deliberate conquest of the west. Her expression in blogs was that the center would provide a convenient place where academic, sociological, violent and cultural jihad would assemble on a senior level infiltrating the West and the Americans in particular (SOMANADER 5).
On Fox and Friends Gretchen Carlson a co-host expressed the grant application by the developers of the center as disingenuous and a surprise in entirety. Although the requested grants were to be used for community development, their skewed arguments only perceived them as part of extreme Muslims. In response to the remarks, Park51 expressed that the grants would be used in social services such as the domestic violence prevention and improvement of the New York community. The center would also provide classes for various languages such as Arabic, French among others. The center would also include services, programs and classes for homeless veterans and multi-cultural art exhibits, as well as immigration services. However, in a fox news edition, Jon Scot a co-host during the news disputed the mayor’s call for tolerance since the building of a mosque on such a site was provocative to the victims of the 9/11 attack (BERRIER 7). A chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice Jay Sekulow expressed that the construction of the mosque was equivalent to the construction of a monument of Kamikaze pilots at Pearl Harbor.
Rush Limbaugh on the radio compared the construction of the center with a scenario where the Ku Klux Klan established a memorial at Gettysburg. This was an impossibility since they would not be allowed even to set the basis of such an establishment. This was an expression that the construction of the Islamic center was deliberately insensitive and offensive since Islamic terrorist had attacked the American people. Pat Buchanan a contributor of MSNBC compared the park51 as equivalent to the Nazi marching through Skokie, IL, which would be a provocation and hence the construction of the center was insensitive. He expressed that although the basic objective of the center was to unite the New York community, the project would only enforce the community to take a common step and pull back. According to Gingrich, the Islamic Center was equivalent to the erection of a Nazi’s sign close to a Holocaust Museum or constructing a Japanese site close to Pearl Harbor. Therefore, America should not accept the development of a provocative center that would remind the people of the people who attacked them. However, they failed to acknowledge the numerous Muslims lives that were lost during the attack. According to Dick Morris a contributor at Fox news, eighty percent of the mosques centrally focus on teaching Sharia law, which is the major activity in these mosques. Therefore, the construction of the mosque would facilitate the recruitment, training and promotion of sharia law advocates, who later support terrorism or become terrorists (BERRIER).
Eric Bolling a business host on Fox described the center as a meeting point for some of the scariest terrorists' minds. What such of the opponents of the center failed to understand was that although the center is Islamic based, it is a multi-faith center where people from all religions and background can meet for social, cultural and recreational activities. They failed to acknowledge that there were other upright Muslims opposing extremist ideologies. In addition, there were many other Muslims who perished and suffered from the 9/11 attack and discrimination and stereotyping compounded the pain. On the same show with Bolling, Brian Kilmeade, a co-host expressed that the center could be equivalent to Hamburg cell, whose members later hijacked and plotted the 9/11 attack. The Hamburg Cell is highly associated with plotting the 9/11 attack. Limbaugh on his radio show expressed that if the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center had been used for recruitment of foreign extremists, a mosque close to the World Trade Center would be used for the recruitment for domestic Islamic extremists. The same views were expressed by Ted Nugent on Washington Times that the mosque would attract Islamic extremist and radicals. He described Islam as a ‘voodoo religion’ commit jihad killing and destroying people in the name of Allah (BERRIER). He expressed that if America was to suffer another terrorist attack, the blame would be on the politicians who supported the construction of the mosque.
However, it is imperative noting that the opposition against Park51 is at the height of Islamophobia that has developed in the west especially after the 9/11 attack. It has led to discrimination and stereotyping of peaceful, loving Muslims as terrorists who had co-existed with other communities for ages without issues. The whole aspect of Islamophobia is unbecoming and undeserving since the constitution allows freedom of religion and religious groups are given the right to construct their places of worship in the country freely. The majority of accusation and claims of the center opponents is based on hatred, fear-mongering and stereotypes. The objective of the center is clearly outlined, and all requirements have been followed. Therefore, an expression that the center would become a center of recruitment of whether domestic or international extremist does not hold (Myerson). The center attracts a multi-faith interaction that would improve tolerance and understanding within the Lower Manhattan community and New York in general.
The facilities provided in the center will play an imperative role in developing the community as compared to the accusations presented by the opponents of the center. The approval of the center is an important indication that the America protects and secures the rights and freedom of the citizens irrespective of their backgrounds and religion. This acknowledges that there is a majority of Muslim adherence in America who love peace and are in opposition of extremist ideologies. It is an acknowledgement that there were Muslims who suffered from the 9/11 attack just as other people from other societies. The politicization of the idea since it was proposed amid electioneering period was the major cause of the bloated commentaries from different groups of interests. It is essential, to note that there are other numerous Islamic facilities in New York and the majority of the Islamic adherences are not extremist.
Works Cited
BERRIER, JUSTIN. "Predictable: Right-wing media respond to Park51 grant application with Islamophobia." November 23 2010. 9 January 2014 <http://mediamatters.org/research/2010/11/23/predictable-right-wing-media-respond-to-park51/173699>.
Moore, Rowan. "Why Park51 is much more than the 'mosque at Ground Zero'." 7 November 2010. 9 January 2014 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/07/ground-zero-park51-new-york>.
Myerson, J.A. "Getting It Right On Park 51." 31 AUGUST 2010. 9 January 2014 <http://thebusysignal.com/2010/08/31/getting-it-right-on-park-51/>.
Pilkington, Ed. "Park51 drawings prove how far 'Ground Zero mosque' claims are from truth." 3 October 2010. 9 January 2014 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/03/park51-building-ground-zero-mosque>.
Salvato, Frank. "The Consequences of Park 51: The Cordoba House." 6 August 2010 . 9 January 2014 <http://www.aim.org/guest-column/the-consequences-of-park-51-the-cordoba-house/>.
SOMANADER, TANYA. "Pam Geller: Park51 Is ‘The Second Wave Of The 9/11 Attack’." 24 NOVEMBER 2010. 9 Janury 2014 <http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/11/24/131936/pam-geller-park51/>.
