Let mosques be

 I am allergic to political correctness, and happy to entertain arguments for restricting Muslim immigration and monitoring Islamic religious institutions to guard against the terrorist threat. I happen to have spent the past couple of days at Silver Bay, a Lake George resort with nondenominational Christian connections, where 100 years ago Sir Robert Baden-Powell attended the first encampment of the Boy Scouts of America. Here for the same few days are a large group of immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico associated with Brooklyn's Iglesia De Evangelizacion Misionera Jovenes Cristianos. They dress conservatively and say grace quietly before meals with their well behaved children, but liven up the place with noisy evening services. Friday night, we went to a nearby Catholic church to hear an impressive concert by Cantores Minores, a Polish choir that will be performing on Sunday at three NYC churches and on Monday at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

PlanetAlbany has not exactly rushed to write about the proposed Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan ("about time" commented my liberal English niece on Facebook when President Obama first weighed in). I share the opponents' concerns about Islamist aggression in a "clash of civilizations" all over the world -- and as Maj. Nidal Hasan demonstrated at Fort Hood, even the U.S. Army can make catastrophic misjudgments regarding who is and is not a potential Islamist murderer. I respect Gov. Paterson's efforts to come up with a compromise site.

Still, a confident city and civilization would rebuild the urban fabric where the World Trade Center stood, memorializing the heroism of the firemen and cops and the loss of their fellow New Yorkers, not swaddling the whole area in piety. New York is strongly connected to the whole world, where most of the victims of Islamist murderers are not Christians or Jews (although there have been many) but their fellow Muslims. The fanatics attack civilians in mosques. They target co-religionists who line up to join the army or police and are vital allies of U.S. soldiers now at war. Those allies are not included in the murderers' version of civilization, but we need them in ours. If, as it would appear, Feisal Abdul Rauf is one of those reasonable men, it is counterproductive to alienate him and his fellow believers, and better to find common ground.

Comments

[Johannah Turner]

I'm looking for the "Like" button. Two likes.

[Mary Cafarelli]

Good blog! Thanks for addressing this difficult topic. I just wish we could move away from the fear factor. Why is everyone so afraid?

[Not politically correct and against Islam]

Hey Mary, everyone's is probably so afraid because 3,000 people lost their lives on 9/11, yeah, I'm sure that has something to do with it. Or maybe because these sleeper cells lived right in their neighborhood, just like normal neighbors only they were really terrorists. Maybe, I'm just guessing. Maybe it's because 99.9% of terror attacks against Americans have been done by Muslims. Maybe that's it? Again, just guessing. Islam breeds hate and terror and condones the abuse of women (do your research on Sharia Law). I think it should stay in the middle east where it belongs. No to New Yorkistan!