Cordoba Institute’s proposed Islamic Cultural Center in Lower Manhattan has created a nationwide buzz and a very divisive controversy from coast to coast in the United States. The core problem appears to be the fact that the proposed site is just two blocks from Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center towers once stood. In the minds and hearts of many Americans, the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and the horrific terrorist attack at that site are still quite fresh.

On one hand, the Cordoba Institute wants to build an Islamic Cultural Center that will basically be an interfaith-oriented center and will build bridges of understanding between American Muslims and other Americans and soothe the wounds of 9/11. On the other hand, the fact that all the terrorists of the 9/11 attack called themselves Muslim has jarred the psyche of Americans to such an extent that many are unable to distinguish the perpetrators of that monstrous crime from other Muslims who are peaceful.

The fact that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, President Barack Obama and a large number of opinion-makers and leaders in the U.S. have approved the Ground Zero Islamic center project,  speaks volumes for the glorious American tradition and ethos of tolerance and the freedom of religion enshrined in the U.S. constitution. 

It is also true that the vituperative campaign of the right-wing against the proposed Islamic center is most mischievous and divisive and is based on twisting logic. Their maligning of Islam, the faith of 1.5 billion souls on Earth, is as unfair as anything can be.  In an election year, the right-wing found a small issue and blew it up for political gain.

However, it is time for American Muslims to understand that while they have every legal and moral right to build an Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero, it is also important that they look at the larger picture of the sentiments of the non-Muslim Americans and the fact that the American psyche has not yet recovered from the 9/11 tragedy. Human sentiments are always more emotional than legal.  Sensitivity to that is paramount for the beleaguered American-Muslim community.

The Muslim community, which numbers about 5 million in the U.S. today, dates to the early 1900s, when Arab Muslims arrived in Michigan to work in the automobile factories. The growth of Muslims as a significant American community began in the 1950s, when a large number of African-Americans began converting to Islam. Then, in the mid-1960s, with the relaxation of immigration laws, a large number of Muslims from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa arrived in the U.S.

Before the unfortunate 9/11 terrorist attack on the U.S. by some very misled people who called themselves Muslim, the American-Muslim community was poised to build a niche for itself in American society.  But on that fateful day, the prospects of this large and vibrant community fell apart.  Nine years later, we still see many instances of Islamophobia in America.

 Today, the Muslim community is under siege in America. Today, Muslims need to think outside the box and break this siege, not by force but by the moral force of Islam that teaches Muslims to resolve disputes by reconciliation, dialogue and sacrifice. They must do everything possible to reverse the community’s negative post-9/11 image by being more creative and using more imagination.

The 51 Park Place site of the proposed Islamic center has neither any historical significance nor any other significance for Muslims. It is just an old commercial building.  Muslims should also consider the fact that in many Muslim majority countries in the Middle East, relocation of old mosques in order to build highways, bridges, office complexes etc., has regularly occurred in the last 60 years without any complaints.  Rightly or wrongly, if Muslims proceed with the construction of the center in that location, it will give an opportunity to their adversaries to blame them for a long time for being insensitive to the sentiments of a large number of Americans.

Here, American Muslims have a rare opportunity to turn the tables on their adversaries. If they agree to relocate this Islamic center some distance away from Ground Zero in Manhattan, they will disarm their adversaries at a time when their community is under siege in U.S., they will diffuse a very tense national American controversy and they will earn the goodwill of the entire American nation.  I surely hope that in the coming weeks, New York Muslims and American Muslims will be able to demonstrate such sensitivity and judgment that can redeem the situation for them and for the American nation.
 
The writer, a board member of the Association of Indian Muslims of America, can be reached at kaleemkawaja @gmail.com