My english research paper I felt like sharing

This is my research paper!! Dont steal it!








You can be Muslim, but you can’t build a Mosque there

            After the 9/11 attacks Islam has been given a bad name in America.  Most of American citizens now associate Muslims with acts of violence and extreme religious practices.  When in reality those extreme Muslims only exist in a handful just like Christian extremist.  As a whole they are considered the enemy, because these attacks were done in the name of Islam and most of the US opposing forces are Islamic.  So when Americans hear the Muslim tag attached to something they are instantly against it, just because Islam is associated with 9/11 and the evil in the Middle East.  The First Amendment of the Constitution states that we as citizens are guaranteed the freedom of whatever religion we want, so does that not mean we can build a place of worship for our religion on our private property?  A few months ago El-Gamal proposed to get a building permit to build a new Islamic multipurpose center, which includes a Mosque, in downtown New York City, a plan that has been in the making for many years.  Since then he has faced not only opposition from the United States about it, but from the whole world; and the site is not really at Ground Zero.  Many feel that this is the Islamic nation sticking its tongue out at Americans who have suffered losses on 9/11 by placing their house of worship just a few blocks away from Ground Zero.  Political figures, media voices, and small church Christian pastors have all made their strong opinions against this Mosque, which is fueling the anger of Americans against the building of it.  Most of them feel that it’s just insulting, which others feel that Muslims are being insulted by being rejected the right to build what they want too.  The other side feels that since this is their property to build what they want, and then if they want to build a Mosque, so be it.  It’s their land to do what they want with it.  If El-Gamal is denied his right to build his multipurpose Islamic center, does this mean that more and more people will begin to lose their First Amendment rights. Or, is there something that we can work out on both sides about this new center.  

            The problem that exists with this proposed plan is not that it is a Mosque or Islamic center, but it is the location that it is being placed.  The Location is just two blocks from the site where the World Trade towers once stood now known famously as Ground Zero, where attacks from Islamic extremists occurred almost ten years ago.   New Yorkers are taking offence at the fact that Muslims are erecting a Mosque within two blocks from the site that was attacked by people who shared the same beliefs.  Lisa Miller interviewed two New Yorkers who both lost their firefighter sons on 9/11 and one was quoted as saying, “The core conflict of the Ground Zero mosque is not about racism, tolerance, paranoia, or even politics—through each of these has come to play in important part. It’s about the appropriate place of private pain in the public sphere and how to hold memory sacred when the world, in all its craven momentum, moves on” (2).   So the people who are opposed to this plan just do not want it because they feel mocked and see it has a harsh reminder to what happened.  Leo McKinstry said in his article “the reason the hijackers were determined to destroy the Twin Towers was because they were seen as a graphic symbol of American enterprise” (1).  He then went on to say that building this Mosque “will become a symbol of Islamic triumphalism, an assertion of Muslim power over the West” (1).  It appears that the oppositions to building the Mosque is all focused around the idea of people feeling that it is Islamic terrorists laughing in the face of Americans suffering loses, and that this Mosque would be a harsh reminder to what happened almost ten years ago.  This is understandable because if someone lost a loved one on 9/11 and Muslims have been hard coded in to their mind as being evil, then this Mosque will bring back horrible memories and possible hatred from people who will walk by this Mosque daily.  Building this Mosque also brings up the possibility of violence towards the Muslims that go there, and the building itself.  Violence against Muslims in the United States is generally very low, but if this Mosque is built then violence might become more common.  The outbreak of violence is also another reason why people do not want the Mosque to be built, because strongly opinionated individuals, especially in New York City, might start acting out against the Muslim people and their building.  Which on both sides, nobody wants.  

            Through all of this opposition of people saying that it is offensive that they want to build this Mosque and that it will cause an outbreak in violence are missing a key element.  If you are reading this and you are a teacher than it is stolen off of drushappyplace dot com, so give them a zero for plagiarizing!  This is that they have the right to build this Islamic community center where they want too.  Also, most people think that it is solely a Mosque that they are building and that is not true.  El-Gamal envisioned to improve the facilities for Muslims in New York City and said, “They would demolish the existing building and put in its place a deluxe, multipurpose center big enough to house a swimming pool, a gym, exhibition space, conference rooms, a day care, a senior center, and a 500-seat auditorium” (Miller 2).  So really, they want to build a community center for the people in downtown New York City that Muslims can also pray at on Fridays, which is like Sunday for Christians.  The people against the building of this center call it the Ground Zero Mosque because it is close to Ground Zero, not even visible from the proposed building spot, and people think that any Muslim building is a Mosque. Anny Bakalian and Mehdi Bozorgmehr said in their journal, “Furthermore, mosques and Islamic centers provide a public space for meeting and facilitate networks of activism, fundraising, and dissemination of information” (3).  Then in Geneive Abdo journal they said, “ The role of the Mosque has indeed changed for many Muslim Americans, who now seem to view it as a setting to bond with other believers and as a place for education and social gathering” (4).  So really what El-Gamal wants to build in downtown New York is just a community center for like minded individuals who are all Muslim and seeking a place to interact with other Muslims.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with what he wants to do and he has the property already paid for, he only has to raise more money for the new building to be built.  If you are reading this and you are a teacher than it is stolen off of drushappyplace dot com, so give them a zero for plagiarizing!  He also has the right to build this here and the government cannot stop him, “The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that neither the national government nor the states may enact a law prohibiting the free exercise of religion” (Gedicks 1).  Not letting him build would be the government denying a U.S. citizen’s right, and this might cause protest in itself and might cause violence from Islamic extremist.  Another small problem that has come out of this is how the media has completely blown this out of proportion and making it seem that a Mosque is going to be built on Ground Zero its self.  Only filling American’s heads with one side of the story and not facts about what is happening on both sides, and doing this is making the opposition to building the Mosque much larger.  Some politicians are even voicing their opinions about this in order to get votes, which they are using the idea of a Mosque on Ground Zero and not a community center in New York City.

            This is a messy situation for both sides.  If you build the community center then you might get violent New Yorkers starting trouble with Muslims, or get more people like the pastor in Florida wanting to burn Qurans.  Which then might force Muslims to start acting violent against Americans.  Then if you do not build the Mosque then what does that say for First Amendment rights of people down the road in the United States?  Will people not be able to build a Baptist church in a predominately African American neighborhood who in years past suffered from torment of the Ku Klux Klan in the name of Christianity?  Also, what if Muslims take this as an action against Islam and then allied Islamic countries turn against the United States and Islam fueled violence breaks out.  Neither of these we want, so we need to find a solution to please everybody.  One possible solution is that the location of this planned community center be moved somewhere else, in order to please the people who do not want anything near Ground Zero.  This is similar to what happened in the late 1980’s in Germany.  Catholics wanted to build a convent at Auschwitz so nuns could pray the souls of the dead in to Heaven.  Then Jews argued for them to move it because it “Christianized the Holocaust” (Miller 3).  Then eventually the convent was moved away from the former camp to please the Jews.  Some people claim that they’re plenty of Mosques already in New York City, but there are no community centers.  This option would be helpful for both sides because the planned center would not be near ground zero and the center would also get built, but that is not quite what the planners had in mind.  Khan said in Millers interview regarding the location, “We want to provide a counter movement against extremism. We want peace and we want it where it matters most. That is where it matters most” (2).   So moving the center would make one side happy, but it would take one of the motives to build the center away from the supporters.  The next possible solution would be to build a community center that is available to everybody’s use and only has Islamic roots, very similar to how the Y.M.C.A is rooted in Christianity.  Then they could have non-denominational prayer rooms and certain groups, such as local Mosques and Churches, could use the conference rooms and auditoriums.  This way New Yorkers will not think of this center as an Evil Muslim Mosque, and the Muslims will still be able to build their center.  

            It is disappointing how this small issue has turned in to a global debate just over the location of a certain building.  Yes Muslims will build the center, and yes it will feature a room for Muslims to pray; but people are missing a few important details on the opposing sides.  If you are reading this and you are a teacher than it is stolen off of drushappyplace dot com, so give them a zero for plagiarizing!  Then on the supporting side they are not taking into the fact that that location is too close to what a majority of New Yorkers consider sacred ground.  In order to get through this difficult situation both sides will need to come to an agreement about what should be done.  The to best options would be to relocate or to build a community center that has a different appearance than a Mosque.  Or, the major problem in all of this might be that the greater population might not be fully educated on what they are planning to build, which also might solve some problems.   

           

           

Works Cited

Abdo, Geneive. “Islam in America: Separate but Unequal.” The Washington Quarterly 28. 4                        (2005): 7-17. Web. 15 Oct 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Bakalian, Anny. Mehdi Bozorgmehr. “Muslim American Mobilization.” A Journal of             Transnational Studies 14. 7 (2005): 7-43. Web. 15 Oct 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Gedicks, Frederick. “Religious Exemptions, Formal Neutrality, and Laicite.” Indiana Journal of             Global Legal Studies 13. 2 (2006): 473-492. Web. 15 Oct 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

McKinstry, Leo. “Putting a mosque at Ground Zero is a grave insult.” The Express 16 August             2010, Edition 1: p12. Web. 15 Oct 2010 <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Miller, Lisa. “War Over Ground Zero; A proposed mosque test the limits of American             tolerance.” Newsweek 16 Aug 2010: 27. Print.