Today in American Dharma: The United States in Relation with the Muslim World: One Year Later

From Overheard in New York:

Male office drone #1: So what do you think of them building a mosque by the World Trade Center?
Female office drone #1: I feel it's disrespectful. I have Muslim friends and I know they're not all terrorists, but there's mourning families to think about.
Male office drone #2: Why don't we put a statue of Hitler in Times Square? There might be some Germans who would want to pray to him.
Female office drone #2: Let them put up a mosque there and then fly a plane into it. Show them how it feels. (others look shocked) Not a manned plane, you know. One of those drones.

--Dunkin' Donuts, Lower Broadway


One year ago today, American Dharma posted its first entry. This entry regarded President Obama's attempt to reach out to the Muslim world via a speech in Cairo. Since that time, it seems as if communication between the US and the Muslim world has not gotten any easier. Obama's plans for a war in Afghanistan and along the Pakistani boarder, a car bomber in Times Square, the controversy over the portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed on South Park (and the subsequent Facebook event "International Draw Mohammed day" which caused the entire nation of Pakistan to ban the popular social networking site), a planned mosque in the are of Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan (as featured in the commentary above), and a host of other issues (I'd even Hirshi Ali's appearance on Colbert in there, but at this point, she's not much more than an instigator) contribute to the present state relations between the United States and the Muslim world.

But Barack Obama is not at want for trying. According to Haroon Moghul from the internet news daily Religion Dispatches, Obama seems to be launching attempt 2.0: trying to get together with leaders in the Muslim community and learn how to reach out. Try to Moghul's feeling, I must agree this is an awkward place to the president to be in indeed: "The last time we helped develop a network of Muslims who came together for common cause, it got messy; al Qaeda emerged from the bloody aftermath."

While on the political front, President Obama seems to be attempting to reboot his reaching out strategy, on the popular front, the American people aren't doing very well. Islamophopia still runs rampant, and no more evident than the debate over whether the Cordoba House, sponsored in part by Daisy Khan's (who has a great blog over at the Washington Post) American Society for Muslim Advancement has the right to build a mosque and community center on land they purchased in lower Manhattan near the cite of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th 2001. Mayor Bloomburg's office has taken the stand of religious freedom for Cordoba to do what they please, which is the legal answer, however many groups of Americans are angered. Groups such as Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and others have planned protests this upcoming weekend to let Cordoba and the city of New York know that they feel that this mosque would be disrespectful to those who have died in the World Trade Center attacks. But would it really? What Cordoba is trying to propose is a center for understanding so that the violent fringe of religious groups do not get the attention that they need to thrive. What is more disrespectful to the dead of 9/11, to continuously foster hatred, or to not even try to understand each other to prevent tragedies like this from occurring?

One year later, and still the same questions arise, what are we doing to contribute to Islamophobia and how can we reach out the hand of understanding as a people? Politics is politics, this is true, and right now, for the political portion of it, the president is doing what he can, but as a people, how are we attempting to reach out a hand to the Muslim world, talk about our differences, and come to some kind of understanding. Until we are collectively as a people willing to work on transcending our own prejudices against the Muslim world, and education is key, how can there be so much hatred for something so few people understand, then we will not move forward. President Obama can make as many speeches as he likes, but we all, as a people, must act.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary, American Dharma.