NYC Mayor Bloomberg, Families of 9/11 Victims Stand Behind Religious Freedom

Charles Wolf stands "100 percent" behind the establishment of the Cordoba House, the Islamic Center planned a couple blocks from the Twin Towers that has caused so much controversy. Wolf lost his wife, Katherine, in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and he's upset that some politicians are exploiting the tragedy to "foster a public backlash against Muslims."

"This country was founded on the principles of religious freedom for all," Wolf pointed out. "Are we doing to start denying that to people? If we start doing that we start dismantling the values this country was founded upon."

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been a staunch defender of the planned center. The New York Times reports that his experience facing anti-Semitism — his parents had to hide who they were to buy a house in a neighborhood where Jews were not welcome — colors his opposition to religious prejudice. Bloomberg reports that all the families of 9/11 victims he has spoken to have been supportive; referring to the victims, Bloomberg argued, “We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights — and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.”

Marvin Bethea, a former Emergency Medical Services worker who developed breathing problems as a result of the 9/11 attacks, asks, "how do you sit here and condemn all Muslims as being terrorists?" He continued, "That's just bigotry and hatred. We're a better nation than that. The diversity that we have, this is what New York is about." As a black man, Bethea says he knows what discrimination feels like.

Regrettably, not all victim's families are supportive of Cordoba House, one even referring to it as a "slap in the face." But much of their pain has been created unnecessarily by exaggerations and lies against what right-wingers inaccurately termed the "Ground Zero Mosque" as some kind of terrorist trophy.

Though certain Republicans have tried to make it sound like the site of the Twin Towers is being built over, it will be in a nearby former Burlington Coat Factory, and other buildings within the same two block radius include a strip club ... uh, the Ground Zero Strip Club? And it's not a mosque — it's an open community center that includes bookstores, restaurants, and event spaces. Incidentally, a Muslim prayer center has existed at the Pentagon, also the site of the 9/11 attacks, for the past decade without encountering hysterical opposition, highlighting further the artificial nature of this storm.

The Cordoba House was conceived by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who has a history of interfaith work and helped the Bush Administration after the 9/11 attacks. Yes, that's Republican President George W. Bush, oh Islamophobic right-wingers of today who choose to slander him with unfounded accusations of terrorist ties. A State Department spokesperson defended him this week: "His work on tolerance and religious diversity is well-known." Rauf's wife, Daisy Khan, also has a strong background in interfaith work and women's rights.

Taken for what it truly is, the Cordoba House should have been built without controversy and without causing pain. It will provide a multicultural, interfaith space to discuss peace and understanding, and assets to the community in the form of various stores, meeting spaces, even a swimming pool. Instead, certain right-wing politicians and pundits chose to turn this into a means to increase anti-Muslim sentiment and distress people who were harmed by 9/11, doing so either out of pure Islamophobia (see calls to ban all mosques from being built in the United States) or manipulative vote-garnering.

Finally, regardless of any other considerations, this is America. We are all guaranteed the right to religious freedom. Nobody should be willing to give that up.

Photo credit: Omar A.