I can’t believe how much I’ve been hearing about this Community Center in the news. I just can’t figure out what’s all of the hub-bub.
First of all FNN is calling it a Mosque over and over as if it’s going to be a sixteen floor, tile encrusted, religious Icon, with minarets and 20 Adhans on huge speakers calling all Muslims to prayer every day at 5 AM and having the size and power that rivals the Hagia Sophia.
The developers of this project want it to be a Community Center with a swimming pool and classrooms, meeting rooms, (and a Mosque), but open to the public, modeled after the Jewish Community Center on the upper west side.
Secondly, I want to address everyone who has hijacked this building as a ‘symbol’ for their own purposes: It’s a symbol for good Muslims, it’s a symbol for bad Muslims, it’s a symbol for a tolerant, democratic United States, it’s a symbol for the United States being big pussies in the eyes of the world…
One object can’t be a symbol for 17 different opposing things. If this is the case, it ceases to be a symbol for anything.
If you ever needed a reason for why the world is so fucked-up, this certainly could be one.
