The Legacy of The Looming Tower

How a proposed Islamic centre near the WTC site is testing tolerance and religious freedom in the United States

01 September 2010
This aerial photo shows the New York city block (lower right), where the 13-storey Islamic centre would be built, two blocks north of the World Trade Center site (centre left).
AP PHOTO
This aerial photo shows the New York city block (lower right), where the 13-storey Islamic centre would be built, two blocks north of the World Trade Center site (centre left).
AP PHOTO

ON THE EVENING OF 27 JULY, a mild sun shone on the elegant and imposing New York City Hall building in Manhattan. Commuters headed underground to subways departing for outer boroughs and bedroom suburbs. In a dance studio adjacent to City Hall, a Korean-American boy practised physics-defying moves with a Mexican-American girl. A short flight of stairs up, a few hundred people had gathered in an auditorium for a public meeting of the Lower Manhattan Community Board. The meeting was supposed to be one of the city’s regular exercises in local representation, where people can raise with board members issues that concern them. Citizens spoke about walking tours, extending bus routes, hospitals … and then a man from the audience shouted: “What about the mosque!” In an instant the auditorium was charged with angry shouts of  “No mosque! No mosque at Ground Zero!”

A shrill debate about religious freedom, limits of tolerance and the meaning of 9/11 has been raging for the past two months in the US around the plans of a New York imam, Abdul Faisal Rauf, and a developer, Sharif Gamal, to build a 13-floor Islamic centre with a prayer space, three blocks from Ground Zero. Supporters say the Cordoba House project will be a venue for reconciliation between Islam and the west, delivering a powerful rebuttal to the al-Qaeda terrorists who attacked the trade towers; opponents call it an offence to the memory of those who died in 2001. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, a group named 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and several interfaith leaders from New York churches and synagogues are among those who want to see the centre built. Lined up against them are the leaders of Tea Party Express—a  highly conservative socio-political movement of mostly white male Republican supporters who have been accused of racism—Republicans such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, rightwing bloggers and some families of 9/11 victims.

Sharif El-Gamal, the developer of the Cordoba House project, speaks to the press after a meeting of the New York City Landmarks Commission on 3 August.. MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS Sharif El-Gamal, the developer of the Cordoba House project, speaks to the press after a meeting of the New York City Landmarks Commission on 3 August.. MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS
Sharif El-Gamal, the developer of the Cordoba House project, speaks to the press after a meeting of the New York City Landmarks Commission on 3 August.
MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS

Basharat Peer is a Contributing Editor at The Caravan. He is the author of Curfewed Night.

Keywords: New York City Basharat Peer Ground Zero World Trade Centre 9/11 Abdul Faisal Rauf Sharif Gamal Cordoba House Al-Qaeda Sarah Palin Pamela Geller Hamas Hezbollah Christian Science Monitor 92Y Ian McEwan Salman Rushdie Ground Zero Mosque Pope John Paul II 45 Park Place Columbia University
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