built upon the sand
No surprises here: monocles are dropping and pearls are being clutched all around the great Tri-State Area at plans to build an Islamic center in the WTC neighborhood.
Certainly, plenty of this "outrage" is just islamophobic counting coup from people who could care less about New York. But it's equally poor to believe the victims and victims' families have some special standing on the matter: if this is a matter of "victims' rights," the ugly innuendo is that builders and potential users of the Islamic center are their victimizers.
The outrage is also largely ignorant of Manhattan's urban model. (The downtown business district is one of the few places in the world where a large, unusual building won't stand out.*) And the space is already a mosque, a fact that most of the articles on the topic bury or exclude. If you're some paranoid anti-Muslim bigot, which would you rather have: a small mosque hidden in a boarded-up Burlington Coat Factory, or an enormous, well-labeled, here-we-are structure open to the public?
If the people behind this project were just looking for a large lot downtown, then the protests would be unsolicited sound and fury. But it seems from the spokespeople's comments that they clearly want the location for symbolism/publicity, and when you do that in a free society, you're inviting public response, and you'd best have your PR ducks in a row. A vocal bloc of the public does not like the symbolism, whatever their motives, and that's bad press. $140 million is a lot of cash to sink into bad publicity.
What does that leave us? A foolish political statement, protested by other foolish political statements, neither likely to change anything, all at great expense. And ain't that America?
*Especially if, as you may note from the picture in the article, there are four 40-storey buildings nearby topped with two pyramids, a ziggurat, and a dome. Talk about islamicization...
Certainly, plenty of this "outrage" is just islamophobic counting coup from people who could care less about New York. But it's equally poor to believe the victims and victims' families have some special standing on the matter: if this is a matter of "victims' rights," the ugly innuendo is that builders and potential users of the Islamic center are their victimizers.
The outrage is also largely ignorant of Manhattan's urban model. (The downtown business district is one of the few places in the world where a large, unusual building won't stand out.*) And the space is already a mosque, a fact that most of the articles on the topic bury or exclude. If you're some paranoid anti-Muslim bigot, which would you rather have: a small mosque hidden in a boarded-up Burlington Coat Factory, or an enormous, well-labeled, here-we-are structure open to the public?
If the people behind this project were just looking for a large lot downtown, then the protests would be unsolicited sound and fury. But it seems from the spokespeople's comments that they clearly want the location for symbolism/publicity, and when you do that in a free society, you're inviting public response, and you'd best have your PR ducks in a row. A vocal bloc of the public does not like the symbolism, whatever their motives, and that's bad press. $140 million is a lot of cash to sink into bad publicity.
What does that leave us? A foolish political statement, protested by other foolish political statements, neither likely to change anything, all at great expense. And ain't that America?
*Especially if, as you may note from the picture in the article, there are four 40-storey buildings nearby topped with two pyramids, a ziggurat, and a dome. Talk about islamicization...