Monday, August 23, 2010
Muslims praying at the Pentagon
Muslims have no business building a $100 million cultural center near Ground Zero in New York City, argue many conservatives and Republicans, and even some Democrats. But worshippers of Islam already have a presence in the World Trade Center neighborhood, praying each day at the Masjid Manhattan, only four blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks, just as they have for 30 years.
Furthermore, Muslims are allowed to pray each day inside the Pentagon—only 60 feet from the spot where a hijacked plane crashed into the building, killing 184 people. In fact, the chapel was added as part of the reconstruction of the Pentagon after 9/11.
Conservative commentators have used the example of the Auschwitz concentration camp site to prove their point that Islam has no place near Ground Zero. For example, columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that, following protests by Jews, Pope John Paul II ordered the Carmelite nuns in 1988 to leave the convent they had established at Auschwitz, saying their presence there was not appropriate.
Writing at the Huffington Post, Jeffrey Feldman points out that Krauthammer’s argument leaves out one important detail: A Christian place of worship does exist today only a third of a mile from the former concentration camp—the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Auschwitz, which was built in 1992 with the cooperation of Jewish leaders. The Centre, a Catholic institution, promotes itself as being “At the threshold of Auschwitz.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
FACT CHECK: Islam Already Lives Near Ground Zero (by Calvin Woodward, Associated Press)
Lie About Auschwitz Fuels Park51 Hysteria (by Jeffrey Feldman, Huffington Post)
In Lower Manhattan, 2 Mosques Have Firm Roots (by Anne Barnard, New York Times)
Muslims Already Pray on Sacred 9/11 Ground: the Pentagon (by Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers)
Comments