There will be an Islamic cultural center near the Ground Zero mosque. Since it is highly controversial, this project's main developer, Sharif El-Gamal was invited by NPR to talk on Saturday.
El-Gamal defended the project by claiming that the major purpose of it is to create a better community and to let people better understand the Islamic culture. I believe his intention is good; however, I found problems in two of his answers.
One of El-Gamal's answer was off-topic and presupposed a wrong relation between accepting forerign money and the purpose of the project. El-Gamal is busy rasing fund, but he was asked about accepting foreign money for some of the funding. He relied that "we are not going to take any money from countries or states or organizations that have un-AMerican values. We are, God willing, going to establish a model going forward for community centers". El-Gamal presupposed that accepting foreign money and building a better community are exclusive to each other, but, infact, they are not. El-Gamal actually did not answer the question at all.
Another problematic sentence is that "if we don't exercise our rights then you start losing your rights". Exercising our rights and losing our rights are not exclusive to each other. Often times, we can still preserve our rights even if we do not practice it.
1 comment:
The “mosque at ground zero” has generated intense debate around the nation. However, most of this debate is inaccurate and dramatic. It is necessary to note, that the mosque hoping to be constructed is actually a cultural center with a prayer room and not a single-purpose house of Islamic worship. Secondly, it is important to note that there is roughly a city block between ground zero and where the cultural center would be built. I feel this article helps to clarify the facts and helps explain the propaganda that has been advertised throughout the media.
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