NYC's Mosque Protests are Truly Embarrassing

New York, you’re acting like an ass. Twice in less than a month this city has been a hotbed of protests against Mosques.

First there was the one over potential Muslim inclusion at Ground Zero, a then last night’s meeting about turning a Staten Island convent into a Mosque devolved into a shouting match that had to be broken up by police.

I expect more from the Big Apple.

This recent swell of anti-Mosque attitudes began in late May, when New Yorkers started getting fired up over whether a Muslim community center should be built in the new World Trade Center.

It’s understandable why people would be upset: many Americans consider ground zero to be hallowed ground.  One group, “Stop the Islamization of America,” described their opposition as “resisting an effort to insult the victims of 9/11 and to establish a beachhead for political Islam and Islamic supremacism in New York… Ground Zero is a war memorial, a burial ground. Respect it.”

Even those who would typically support Mosques are scratching their heads over this one. Zuhdi Jasser, a veteran who’s also founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, insisted this month, “Ground zero shouldn’t be about promoting Islam. It’s the place where war was declared on us as Americans.” A community board rightfully approved the Mosque this week, a move that no doubt pleases Borough President Scott Stringer, who has sees the plan as a way to bridge cultural divides. The Staten Island issue, however, seems far from resolved.

One man at last night’s meeting asked representatives from the Muslim American Society whether the group would denounce Hamas, to which the group’s local president, Ayman Hammous, replied, “[We denounce] any form of terrorism, any act of terror — by individuals, by groups, by governments said, “yes.” Another participant asked him, “Wouldn’t you agree that every terrorist, past and present, has come out of a mosque?” Of course not all terrorists come only from Mosques, you silly nut: in fact, the first terrifying car bomb came from an Italian anarchist here in the United States, on Wall Street. Such rational thinking obviously had no place at the meeting, though, because police and security eventually intervened to tamper the increasingly tense situation.

Mosque protests have been popping up across the nation. But I hold New York, this proverbial melting pot, to a different standard. No matter how scarred we are from 9/11 – who doesn’t get a bit nervous when a plane’s flying too low – but New York City has a responsibility to the rest of the nation to move beyond stereotype-laden, low-brow fear mongering.

Time and time again an oppressed group has proven their salt: Irish people were once ostracized, after all, and now they’re an integral New York population. The same could, and should, be possible for Muslim communities in the city limits. But only if we New Yorkers exercise the open mind for which we’re so famous. Besides, without any Muslims, where would we get our Halal street food?

Image via benjaminsiegel’s Flickr.