On 9/11, finding hope for Islam in America

My husband was a Presbyterian (an Italian Presbyterian, or perhaps a Presbyterian Italian, no less!) and more often than not our religious and secular values coincided. We were able to raise our children in a healthy and productive environment. I find great value in your column.

This uproar about the Islamic cultural center, which will include a mosque, is very disturbing on many levels. Yet, what bothers me the most, because it is not discussed enough, is the willingness of political partisans to promote this issue for partisan political gains. Those who are doing this just do not seem to care what they are doing to good, law abiding American Muslims; how they are putting them in physical danger. They do they seem to care about how their hate-promoting will be used by our enemies and make our country less safe. Nor do they seem to care what they are doing to our own society when they promote these kind of issues for no other reason than to create political agitation, which they can use to their advantage at the polls.

This issue was deliberately ginned-up to create a political wedge issue by The Right. In Dec. of 2009, when this was first reported on Fox news, it received their support and blessings. That all changed when there was a political advantage seen in using this to create their wedge issue de jour. More than anything else, I believe, this is about Right Wing media manipulation; manipulating the deep and tender hurt of those who have lost loved ones; of manipulating peoples hearts and minds towards hate and intolerance for political gain as well as driving the political discourse in an election year.

In my mind, using the tragedy of those who lost their lives on 9/11 as an excuse to abandon the values that Christ taught us and to manipulate the sorrow of the love ones left behind from this attack to create a political advantage is what is truly insensitive and insulting to anyone who was touched by the evil events of 9/11.

I think it is dangerous to discuss this issue without including the above. We, especially as Christians, need to be more aware of how easily led we can be to hate; that hate can be disguised by covering it with flag and cross. And, as citizens, we need to be more aware of those who, regardless of who they may harm, are promoting issues that tempt us to corrupt our very own souls by self-righteously taking up their banner of hate and intolerance.

My prayers, as always, will be with all those who have died and those who have suffered from the terrorists attack on 9/11. My prayers will also be that there are NO MORE victims from this terrible event. And that includes the safety of all Americans, at home and abroad as well as all loving,
peace-building Muslims, be them Americans or not. I hope that more will join me in my prayer because, as it is, this issue is one that is sure to create many, many more innocent victims. And creating more innocent victims is no way to honor those who have died.

We need to be very concerned. May Christ's peace be with all who are trying to understand this issue.

John David

Bill, there really is a difference between Islam and Christianity. Jesus said to forgive your enemies, Muhammed said to slay them. Repeatedly.

That some of Christs followers did not obey him is one thing, and the fact that many of Muhammed's followers DO obey him is obviously another.

While the Muslims have a right to build their Mosque, how about speaking out for the remaining Christians in places like Iraq and Pakistan who are oppressed, threatened, having their churches burned, and even murdered?

Do you have anything to say for them, Bill?

Thank you for sharing your pain and hope.

It hurts me deeply that some of the people in our families and our friends have such hatred towards a religious group. They do NOT want to know that what happened on 9/11 is not a part of the true Islam religion, who are a people of peace and justice. Lord Jesus, open our hearts to the truth, even when we don't want to know. Amen.

Very necessary comments, Bill. Good job.

Bill, I've followed your writings on this subject since 9/11 and it has enriched my life and has guided my understanding of my loving connection with all of God's children, whatever their religion or lack of it.

"So this 9/11 I continue to grieve the death of my nephew but I also grieve the anti-Islamic hatred I find among some Americans. And yet I grieve not as others do who have no hope."

I join my prayers with yours today in sadnesa for our weary world, but also in hope. Mary Behr

The Islamophobia is an intentional stirring of hatred of Islamic persons by right-wing demagogues such as Limbaugh, and the Fox News entertainers. Then they try to link President Obama to Islam and to all the negative qualities they hate in Islamic terrorist. It is a well thought out program of hate accepted by many of the Fox News followers. The feelings of Islamophobia are thus promoted and celebrated in many right-wing Catholic circles as well.

Bill, Randall asked a good question. Do you have anything to say for the remaining Christians in Iraq and Pakistan and other Islamic countries where Christians are being oppressed, imprisoned, having their churches burned, and even murdered?

Anything at all, Bill?

In fact, I ask any of the posters here, do you have anything to say for those Christians?

I will support a mosque near Ground Zero when the Muslims permit a church in Mecca. Or how about just returning the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul) that they stole from the Greek Orthodox at sword-point? How about practising a little religious tolerance and freedom, the very same tolerance and freedom that they expect from us?

How about publicly denouncing the murders of innocent men, women, and worst of all, children, by Hamas and other terrorist groups? How about condemning the public hanging of a 7 year old boy by the Taliban in Afganistan back in early June? How about if Islamic countries publicly disavowed the barbarous practices called for in Sharia law? How about recognizing that Israel has a right to exist?

A recent New York Times poll reported that a majority of Catholics and Jews oppose the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan (though residents of the area do not). Have we forgotten the discrimination and exclusion of Catholics and Jews in recent history based on similar distrust and suspicion fueled by ignorance of our faiths? Have we forgotten our own faith? When a young man asked Jesus which were the greatest commandments, Jesus replied to love God and neighbor. The young man then asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer was the story of the Good Samaritan. Let us remember that Samaritans were pariah to most Jews of His time. While this story is benignly familiar to us, it was probably very upsetting to His audience. For that story to have the same impact among some Christians and Jews today, I suspect Jesus might tell the story of the Good Muslim.

The Muslim community that owns the former Burlington Coat Factory has been in the neighborhood of lower Manhattan since before the World Trade towers were built. They have outgrown their space and were seeking new, larger space when the coat factory became available at a discounted price because of its damaged condition. They purchased it last year, but it needs to be demolished and replaced for safety reasons, as well as to enhance its usage. The plan is to build the equivalent of a Y, open to all and featuring opportunities for interfaith dialogue.

I have been to what is now being called Park51. I was invited by a Jewish man who works for an interfaith organization and who has worked with this Muslim community since 1973. He encouraged me to join him at Juma, the Friday prayer. I went with a Franciscan priest-colleague who is a Catholic-Muslim scholar. We were warmly welcomed. When one member of the congregation found out we were Christian, he enthusiastically told us how to be a Muslim you must believe in Jesus. He then mentioned how much Muslims honor Mary, having more about her in the Quran than is in the Gospels. The imam who preached could have been speaking to any worshipping community. His emphasis was the need for good works. He repeatedly asked, “How are you going to spend the last six days of Ramadan?” He admonished, if you feel your prayers are not being answered, perhaps you must consider your own responsibility to fulfill the good works to which we are all called.

Within the same vicinity of Park51, an area some call sacred ground, are numerous stores like Century 21 and vendors who have exploited 9/11/01 with unauthorized souvenirs since the attack first happened. The very footprints of the World Trade towers are to be replaced with new profiteering corporate offices. There are multiple sex clubs within blocks. How any of these respect sacred ground is beyond my imagination, but I do not hear anyone demanding they be removed. What I experienced at Park 51, however, does respect sacred ground. As a matter of fact, it consecrates desecrated ground. To suggest that the Muslim community move Park51 because its current location is sacred ground is to imply that all Muslims were responsible for what happened on 9/11/01, rather than acknowledging that many were and continue to be its victims. Would we like all Catholics to be blamed for the holocaust because Hitler was a Catholic or to be blamed for the bombing in Oklahoma City because Timothy McVeigh was an altar boy?

I encourage all who have doubts to read Islam: What Catholics Need to Know by Fr. Elias Mallon, S.A.; to participate in interfaith events in their communities; and to pray that we who were once the victims of anti-Catholic bias not become perpetrators, that we remember the Good Samaritan of Jesus’ time could be the Good Muslim of today.

I'm pleased to hear the voices of those who recall the same fears held against the Catholic Church in particular.
People have a short memory.
The Church has more clout today than ever before and has literally got away with murder and terrorism up to the 20th century; it's still not the end of the world although one wonders.

With all due respect, I am not aware that Bill Tammeus has ever spoken out in defense of Christian brothers and sisters being oppressed, tortured, and killed in Pakistan, the Sudan, and many other countried controlled by Muslims.

Christ believed in loving your neighbor as yourself, and although many of his supposed followers have not followed his lead, there is no question that Muhammed embraced violence.

So, for his followers to use such methods is not suprising.

Christ and Muhammed took completely different approaches.

Amen to John David and Rosemarie Pace and to all of you who spoke the same. You all are shining examples of truly Christ-like restraint and love. The Right Wing Conservative Catholics are, as usual, the source of so much hate which does absolutely nothing but beget ever more hate. We have to have FAITH that our blessed and beloved Jesus knew what He was talking about when he preached about peace, love, tolerance and "Do unto others...".

Personally, I think it is the only way, there is no other way. Thoughtful reflection tells that there can be no other way if society, the family of man , the loving Gods creation is to rise above our human foibles and proclivities.

As we all can see, it is easy to give into hate, as have the likes of Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck, Van Susteren, Cavuto and Limpball do every day, 24/7/365. The GOP and even the pope are part of this hate system that has consumed the Repub party and their 59 million voters who just seem to hate not only AMERICAN Muslims, but all of us who do not agree with their corrupt(BP, contaminated eggs, melamine baby food, the overly salty baby food of many years ago, etc) economic policies, practices and lifestyles. They that place economic values over human values, as they work to destroy the middle class American worker and his family by dehumanizing, objectifying and demonizing them as Communists and Socialists, "welfare queens", terrorists, supporters of terrorism, abortion andf homosexuality. All Repubs, Catholic and otherwise, are consumed by their endless greed for money and equally endless lust for power. I cannot understand why/how the Catholic Church generates so many of these kinds of hateful people, from Fr. Coughlan to Sen. Joe McCarty to the likes of Jeb Bush, Scalia, Newt Gingrich, Buchanan, Noonan, Ingraham, Malkin, Weigel, Weyrich(deceased) Jerome Corsi and so many other so called Catholics. Actually, I do know the answer. It is due to the evil that lies in some peoples minds! There is now proof for this. cf, Newberg, MD, Univ. of Pennsylvania, et.al.

Pastor Niemoller's poem(First they came for the Communists..., etc) comes to mind so often, in these times. If and when we succumb to NON Christ like behavior we are called to rise above our human tendencies and to GROW BEYOND them. However, the Repubs and their Religious Right cannot seem to ever rise above their hate for others. They never remember "Thou shalt NOT kill, covet, steal or bear false witness. And ALL of this is being done for political gain as our brother John David reminded us. From the very beginning, in 1968, this was all done for Repub party political gain. For some reason, the Catholic Repubs, including the hiearchy cannot admit to this. But then it is always easier to villify and demonize others rather than to find the truly Christ-like way to resolve problems. It is easier to blame ones hate for Communism/Socialism on the BVM at Fatima that to find Christ-like ways of resolving differences.

Satan has succeeded when even Christ's church cannot follow His teachings. Could that be why He has not come again. Because even His church has not learned to follow His teachings or His Fathers laws, The Ten Commandments??? He/They, The Triune God is still waiting.

Will this end soon. Absolutely, NOT!!! When even the pope cannot understand, and supports this hateful behavior, it cannot end soon or end well. Recall the Crusades, the various Inquisitions, the witch trials, burnings and tortures of poor helpless people who were guilty of nothing more than eating wheat infected with the hallucinogen Ergot. Or the Copernicus/Galileo events and the Reichskonkordat of 1933. And yet, with all of those instructive events they learn nothing and choose to do many of the same things over and over, etc, ad nauseam.

Osama bin Laden started this, but the Repubs(Cons, Neocons, Atwater, Rove, Frank Luntz, etc) and Their Religious Right are keeping it going. Now the damage is done! There is no going back! Endless rampant hate is consuming our nation.

In May of 2000, Scalia called for "the end to the Rule of Law" and "the end to democracy in America". He/they have nearly succeeded!!!

Blessings to all--and may God help us for what is yet to come, when the Repubs put Sarah Palin, Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich or Romney into the WH.

As usual, Bill Tammaeus' insights show the way. Lest we forget, according to the writings of our brother Ray McGovern revealed that the Presbyterians are NOT part of this Republican religious hate machine.

Again, blessings to all--

bob

I have no doubts about my bone fides as a Catholic and political progressive. But I must admit to a woeful ignorance about Islam beyond just the rudimentary facts of Mohammed's life, and outline of the historical conflict between Christiantiy and Islam dating back to the 8th century.

Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular, does encompass a pacifist ethic--along with the many varieties of opinion which go as far as Just War Theory. What I know nothing about is whether or not there is a pacifist ethic that has been developed in Islam. Is there such an ethic in their religion? I don't ask the question rhetorically to imply that there is not, but as a serious consideration. It would be good if NCR devoted an issue to that question.

You might enjoy a book called "The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and that Veil Thing" by Sumbul Ali-Karamali. More at www.MuslimNextDoor.com

I knew Fr. Judge and I lost a dear friend who was the head flight attendant on Flight 93. I remember the fear my cousin felt knowing her husband and father of two was in the south tower and who had seen the north tower get hit, with his best friend in the tower, now dead. I remember how he barely escaped with his staff from Tower South, how they ran up Vesey Street, feeling the backlash of the building imploding on itself.

I worked in the area for six months recently and passed that building every day on my way to work and then back. There wasn't one day I didn't think about them.

I remember standing on the intersection of Park Place and Church and being able to see to my right the Burlington building and in front of me St. Peter's Church and the pit. Those couple of blocks are closer than you would think.

And I still remember that day when I had another job, working a block from the Empire State Building and being told to evacuate because that building could be next. I remember walking home and seeing hundreds of people just milling about on the streets, in shock, in fear, not knowing where to go. I remember the phones not working and not being able to call anyone and being alone. Wondering would I make it home.

I remember gathering on the roof of my friend's apt. a whole bunch of us from my parish to pray with her husband and not being able to stay up there because of the smoke and stench and thinking this was how it must have been in England during WW II. We felt like we were at war and were just waiting for the next attack.

How many of you were actually here to experience this? How many of you lost family? How many of you suffered flashbacks when you heard planes overhead or heard a car backfire or saw smoke like so many New Yorkers did?

I am all for freedom of religion but I think it highly insensitive of them to pick this location to build. Yes, they have been in the area, so why not build on top of their building on Warren Street?

So many of the comments are asking us to be good Christians. Fine, I will follow Pope John Paul who when he heard about nuns wanting to build a convent on a spot near a former concentration camp, persuaded them to think of the implications and to build but to build elsewhere.

The Iman said on ABC This Week that he felt there was more anti-Islamic sentiment now more than ever. Perhaps if he remembered that tolerance is a two-way street. Had they not dug in their heels and disregarded the feelings of so many people this would not have become such a major issue. By it becoming a national one, it stoked up more ill will than if some simple common sense had been carried out. I pray for peace and for people of good will to compromise.

I'm dubious of how TIME collected the data to be able to say "it is plain that many of Park51’s opponents are motivated by deep-seated Islamophobia.”... Bull

They are doing more damage than good in their efforts to polarize opponents and beating everyone over the head with the term Islamophobia...

If the Imam behind this is such a compassionate and peace-loving muslim then why is he so adamant about building his Mega-mosque here?... and who's paying for it?

At least 13 protesters died Monday when Indian police clashed with tens of thousands of Kashmiris who took to the streets and torched a Christian missionary school in demonstrations fueled by reports of Quran burnings in the United States….

How's that religion of peace thing working out? I know, I know this is an isolated incident by a bunch of radicals... tens of thousands of radicals.

Several readers have asked whether I've ever spoken out about the oppression of Christians in various countries around the world. The answer is: often. In addition to columns about this subject while I was at The Kansas City Star, I've done various blog entries about it over the years. Just for starters, go to the archives at http://billtammeus.typepad.com and find these entries: 12-21-09, 1-11-10, 6-11-10 and 8-11-10. This issue continues to concern me, as regular readers of my former KC Star column and readers of my current "Faith Matters" blog know.

9/11
the anniversary of the vicious, immoral, genocidal overthrow by nixon and kissinger of a freely and democratically government in Chile, detroying the people, nation and culture forever under the murderous pinochet regime, which continues

is there any hope for America in America?

say to the chrytians(kofar) that allah sad in quran to his messenger (our master mohammed)to say that if allah have a sond i am from the first believers(so fear allh before the day when your regret won't help you

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I believe that an attempted dispassionate look at islam in the world indicates they are fundamentally incompatible with modern free and equal society. They have been trying to conquer and subdue and convert us since the 7th century, with no let up. Do not talk nonsense to me about 'only a few extremists! That is the kind of rubbish one hears about the German people who wholeheartedly supported Hitler and his Nazis. If you stand in the face of evil and do nothing you are guilty of it. The mohammedans are the enemy of civilization who will either dominate us or be defeated by us. We are at war, a total war without quarter because that is what they ultimately will allow us. No, this is not a rant by an extremest. I have been following those people's march for decades now. A relentless and intractable foe can only be dealt with in kind, something left-liberals just don't understand, just as they did not understand when Hitler, and Stalin, waged their wars on civilization as the musselmens are doing now.

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