In a vote Tuesday, May 24, 2010, a Manhattan board approved a Muslim center to be built near Ground Zero. After a long and heated debate, the scars radical Islam left on Americans were still raw, as several people, some carrying posters with heated slogans and others displaying photos of victims of the terrorist attacks, adamantly opposed the building of the Islamic center. The center, which will be called The Cordoba House, will be built only two blocks north of the former twin towers. At the board meeting, several people, including victims' family members, virulently protested the proposal, prompting the New York Post to use the headline "NYers Wage Jihad vs. WTC Mosque". However, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, head of the Cordoba Institute, said at the meeting, "We have condemned the actions of 9/11 in the most unequivocal terms." He reassured New Yorkers that the center would help "bridge and heal a divide" that has become a chasm since the events following September 11.

The Cordoba House: a proposal for lower Manhattan
If approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Islamic community center will be funded by The Cordoba Institute, a Muslim organization that "aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, steering the world back to the course of mutual recognition and respect and away from heightened tensions." They are an organization that claims, "Solving some of the most intractable conflicts in the world today requires innovative strategies for cross-cultural engagement," which is why they are proposing a center that includes a 500-seat performing arts center and auditorium, a swimming pool, art exhibition spaces, bookstores, a prayer space, restaurants promoting the rich culinary traditions of the Middle East, and more cultural programs as funds allow.
The proposed center was given the name The Cordoba House in order to evoke the "atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago" in the Spanish city in what was then known as Al-Andalus, says the Cordoba Institute's website. The website confidently assures that this is a "project which will build a world-class facility that promotes tolerance..." and goes on to say, "The center will be community-driven, serving as a platform for inter-community gatherings and cooperation at all levels." It will be "about promoting integration, tolerance of difference, and community cohesion through arts and culture. And it will provide a place where individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, will find a center of learning, art and culture; and most importantly, a center guided by universal values in their truest form - compassion, generosity, and respect for all."

America's pain resulting from September 11th has not been forgotten nor overlooked. For many, Ground Zero is hallowed ground, where the building of an Islamic center seems to be an affront to America's deepest wounds. It is certainly an interesting choice to build a 14-story Islamic center in the city that has the second highest Jewish population in the world next to Tel Aviv. There are several in opposition, from those with well-articulated pertinent reasons such as the likening of the center to a Japanese cultural center next to Pearl Harbor fifty years ago, to those with hateful and confusing statements such as Tea Party Express Chairman Mark Williams' comment that the board had allowed a "13 story tall middle finger aimed at 911 victims" where Muslims could worship their "monkey-god," ignorantly referring to a Hindu god instead of Allah.

A Muslim center near Ground Zero has produced a polemic battle. However, Mayor Michael Bloomburg has repeatedly stated he would not object to the building of the center, and several people have said that the intense negative reactions to the project prove why the Cordoba House is necessary.

Read more about the initiative. Read a related story about a controversy in Cordoba.

—Jessica Proett