What 2 American Muslims, N Bolourchi, an Iranian American who lost her mother on 9/11 and Z Jasser, Pres of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, say in OPPOSITION to the mosque in an NPR interview by M Martin, 8.17.2010
audio tape
transcript
Snips:
On the location of the mosque, its symbolism, and Cordoba founder
Ms B:
…I’m not against the religion and this gentleman in particular. I am just saying as family members, this will be a very harsh reminder for us of what happened that day. I wanted to have a beautiful, peaceful place where I go to reflect and to remember my mother because I don’t have a place. There is nothing for me. There’s no gravesite. There is nothing for me to go back to, like anybody else.
And that little piece of land, even though it wasn’t sacred before, obviously, it has turned to a sacred ground for us family members.
… I don’t know the Cordoba founders personally, but I believe that the way they are handling the situation seems to be not a person that is very compassionate and trying to reach out and that is not happening. I have never heard of this gentleman or the Cordoba Ctr in the past nine years that this happened. Nobody had ever contacted us family members saying that there was a proposal to build a building in that site. All of this has stirred up all these emotions.
Dr J:
There’s actually a mosque closer than this one is that nobody said anything about that was harmed much more than this one was. And the problem has to do with the mammoth size of this structure, the fact that its finances are not reflective of the local community there.
The fact that it actually, regardless of what their intentions are to preach nonviolence, it will be used by Islamists who have the lens of everything in the world through political Islam to shed a light that will, out of the ashes of the sorrow of families like Neda’s, has come this Islamic prominence that I think if we had $100 M, I’ll tell you, I’d like to see it spent on a hundred centers around the country counterterrorism, anti al-Qaida centers that show America that we want to lead the war of ideas and not just sort of think that this is a PR problem that we can anesthetize America to the real problem.
… I was disappointed that the president decided to bring the weight of the White House into this … Nobody’s saying to make this illegal. But there’s a difference between something you can do vs. something you should do.
And if they shrink the size of the project so that it’s not imposing and casting a shadow over a cemetery, I would change my opinion. If they committed themselves to local monies only, if they committed themselves to not have it this you know, I just think it’s poor taste and insensitive. It should be something about being American. Interfaith purely, not an Islamic but an American center, dedicated simply to memorializing the families. And if it’s a mosque, not as imposing in the imagery and the optics that it’s going to have.
Ms B:
… I feel the same way because, I mean, to me Islam doesn’t reside in the building. And if we moved it a couple of blocks down the road, Islam will perish. I mean that’s absurd. And he (the builder) is talking about this issue as though that the people who are against building it are bigots and that us family members should not have a voice and somehow he’s more American than the rest of us.
I am a U.S. citizen too, so I have as much of a right to freedom of speech and religion as he does. But I’m in a unique situation that I’m also a family member and I have an emotional tie to that land and he doesn’t. And so I don’t think it is asking too much for him to take our feelings into consideration.
On the collective guilt argument, that all Muslims should be accountable for the actions of some Muslims.
Ms B:
I think that we have to take responsibility for what has happened. I am not saying that this particular gentleman or this particular center did anything wrong. But I can’t help to think that as a clergyman, I don’t know what his real intentions and his beliefs are. You see, there were other mosques before 9/11, and none of those clergymen were able to reach out to society and to say that, look, yes, I know this part of our religion is bad, but we are trying to counter it with our understanding and our love.
That didn’t happen. That is why 9/11 happened. And I don’t think that the existence of a building next to a sacred ground for us family members will make any difference.
Dr J:
… what we’re showing is that we are not a monolithic community and that, actually, when we get involved in the community and sociopolitical affairs, I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve. It’s part of who I am. It’s part of my deep relationship with God. But the collectivization of the community that somehow we as Muslims should think the same in all political movements and somehow we’re no longer going to be Democrats or Republicans or socialists or communists, whatever you want, that’s what political Islam is all about.
And that’s why I’ve really been against this and that this is not a religious statement. It’s becoming it is a political statement by the virtue of its size. And I think the fact that we’re demonstrating that we are not monolithic shows that, yes, I think that if the country started and there have been other mosques in the country like in TN, in CA, that there should be questions about their ideologies.
But nobody should question the right about the ability to build a mosque because that’s a cornerstone of this country and that’s if we change those principles, then we will lose the war of ideas. And I don’t want to see that change.
