The Tide is Turning Against Opponents of Islamic Center in Manhatten

In a stunning turn of events, intelligent and well meaning people of conscience everywhere are speaking out against bias, bigotry and narrow minded provincialism. Led by a coalition of liberals and moderate conservatives, people all over cyberspace and the blogosphere are speaking out and discrediting all those trying to smear American Muslims by condemning the building of a harmless Islamic center in lower Manhattan.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I have no data to back up this claim, but wouldn't it be great if that was the line we all went with for the next week and saw where it went.

To be truthful, I have had a number of people contact me recently and claim that a number of blogs and facebook posts they have seen, posted by me and others, had actually turned them around on the issue. And because of that, I think its perfectly reasonable to say that this IS happening all over the country. If we all tell as many people as we can that it most certainly is happening all over the country. It actually will be.

Lets get to it people. Start spreading the word. A change it is a commin'

And if you need any ammunition, I just had to provide come great excerpts from a recent article by Peter Skerry of the Brookings Institute and Boston University. While I don't completely agree with his focus on difference within the Muslim community as opposed to the general public's reaction tot he center, there were just too many good segments not to post:

----------------------------------------------

THE MOSQUE near ground zero should be built, but not merely on account of the lofty principles about religious freedom articulated by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In fact, when it comes to Islam, Americans have good reason to be suspicious of high-minded pronouncements by their leaders. A more compelling argument for building the mosque is to get beyond the current controversy, because it empowers the most opportunistic elements in the Muslim community and fosters an us-versus-them mentality that stalls a much-needed debate among Muslims about their place in American society ...

Reasonable people have good grounds to be distrustful of Muslim leaders and of the proposed prayer space. US mosques have often been battlegrounds between contending Muslim factions. A typical scenario is for one group to go to the trouble and expense of building a mosque, only to have it taken over by some other group.

Although extremists have sometimes prevailed in this way, terrorists and would-be terrorists have typically operated outside mosques — either because they chose to or because they were forced out by fellow Muslims.

More disturbing is the lack of candor on the part of many Muslim leaders about their past associations. As federal prosecutors established in the recent Holy Land Foundation trial, many leaders have had ties to Hamas and to the Muslim Brotherhood. To be fair, the implications of such ties may not be as dire as anti-Muslim zealots suggest. The Muslim Brotherhood is, after all, an encompassing movement in the Arab world, with divergent tendencies responsive to the different contexts in which adherents operate ...

An overlooked irony about the proposed mosque is that as many as 80 percent of Muslims in the United States lack a regular relationship with any mosque. Of these, some probably reject Islam and organized religion altogether. A larger number likely continue to identify with Islam but do not seriously observe its tenets. In addition to the usual reasons why immigrants do not get involved in civic or political affairs, such “unmosqued’’ Muslims are particularly difficult for leaders to communicate with and mobilize.

Adding to the difficulty is the diversity of Muslims in the United States. Not only are they divided among Sunni, Shia, and Sufi, they are separated by language and ethnic ties to their homelands. There is also a gulf between immigrant Muslims and their African-American brothers and sisters, who are themselves riven into many different sects. Finally, there are differences among traditionalists, fundamentalists, and Islamists.

In light of such fault lines and obstacles, controversies and attacks from non-Muslims afford leaders a singular opportunity to unify and mobilize their people, as Muslims. But the more the frame becomes Muslims versus non-Muslims, the more responsible leaders get pushed aside by the most opportunistic purveyors of victim politics. This is the real tragedy of disputes like the present one. To facilitate this process, the rest of us should follow Bloomberg’s imperfect example;

Support the building of the mosque near ground zero, maintain our vigilance against our true enemies in the Muslim world, and encourage Muslims here to get on with the critical business of coming to terms not only with their rights but also with their responsibilities as citizens.