THE GROUND-ZERO ISLAMIC CENTER: POLITICS OF ISLAMOPHOBIA
Vinod Mubayi
Historically, economic hard times in America have frequently been accompanied by attempts to blame and scapegoat ethnic minorities for the real problems people face. This is amplified in an election year where politicians posture endlessly to stoke prejudices as a way of igniting their own campaigns. It is not where the Islamic center is proposed to be built-rather it is the very idea of an Islamic center- that has stirred up this hornets’ nest.
Historically, economic hard times in America have frequently been accompanied by attempts to blame and scapegoat ethnic minorities for the real problems people face. This is amplified in an election year where politicians posture endlessly to stoke prejudices as a way of igniting their own campaigns. Something like this seems to be happening in the current frenzy being generated by the so-called Ground-Zero Islamic Center as reflected in daily newspaper and TV news headlines in the right-wing media such as Fox News and the New York Post and the virulent propaganda being ginned up by politicians, mostly Republicans, who are anxious to pick up any topic that will advance their election prospects in the fall.
The initial plans for the Park 51 Islamic Center, situated two blocks away from where the World Trade Center buildings stood, were revealed in a front-page article in the New York Times in December 2009 and attracted very little comment at the time apart from an initial favorable interview on Fox News itself with the wife of the Imam of the proposed Center. The Center itself is not a mosque but more on the lines of a cultural center like the famous 92nd St Jewish Y on the upper east side of Manhattan; it incorporates a library, a swimming pool, athletic facilities, as well as a room set aside for prayer. The Imam, Abdul Rauf, who is currently on a US State Department sponsored tour of the Middle East, has been frequently sought out by both the Bush and Obama administrations to represent the moderate, multi-cultural side of America, a land where Muslims can practice their faith and prosper, to non-American audiences.
Three months ago, the rabidly right-wing Rupert Murdoch-owned news media, Fox News, the New York Post, Wall Street Journal and others, seem to have decided that going hammer and tongs after what they label the “Ground-Zero Mosque” would be an election tactic that could pay solid dividends. Stirring Islamophobia in America requires no great effort ever since the events of 9-11-2001. Crazies of every stripe abound in this land, from the Florida preacher who wants to burn a thousand Korans on the grounds of his church to the blogger who claims Obama is the illegitimate son of Malcolm X. More mainstream politicians, who do not wish to identify too openly with out and bigots and racists, claim it would be “disrespectful” to build the Center where it is proposed; more “disrespectful” perhaps than the several X-rated “Gentlemen’s Clubs” offering lap dances that are even closer to the hallowed site?
In the slime that is being voluminously poured by the right-wing media and bloggers every day, it needs to be acknowledged that some courageous politicians, notably led by the New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, but also including President Obama, have defended the rights of the Park 51 Board, which includes numerous Jewish and Christian figures, to build the Center at the proposed location. In responding to the hypocrisy of those who propose that the Center should voluntarily move “further away” from Ground-Zero Bloomberg pertinently asked what and whose criteria would be used to determine how far “far” would be. `
It requires no great insight to figure out what the motives underlying the hype and the attacks are. One of the prime targets is naturally Obama himself, who has always been labeled a closet Muslim by a narrow fringe that, according to the latest polls, has grown astonishingly to a full 20% of the US population. While racist white Americans’ angst at having to stomach their first black President is on full display in this episode, what is truly ironic, on the other hand, is the likely impact of this propaganda on America’s imperial adventures, both in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Bush repeatedly emphasized in his tenure the goal of winning the “hearts and minds” of Muslims as an essential element in the campaign to vanquish Al-Qaeda, that threatened America’s own national security. At the same time, it can hardly have escaped anyone that the most fervent cheerleaders in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were the same right-wing media led by Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and other parts of Murdoch’s empire. One would think this media would realize that fostering Islamophobia in America was the not the best way to promote American interests in Islamic countries. But rationality and consistency, even in pursuit of empire, has never been a strong suit of right-wing bigots of all hues. Not for nothing did historians label their predecessors a century ago as the “Know-Nothings.”