Continuing with our coverage of the global reaction to the proposed Muslim community center/mosque near Ground Zero in New York, this article by columnist Matthias Gierth of Germany’s Rheinischer Merkur calls for cooler heads and eventual approval of the project, in order to prove al-Qaeda’s claims about the ‘godless West’ wrong’ – and prevent the terrorist group from using the issue for propaganda purposes.
For Rheinischer Merkur, Matthias Gierth writes in part:
The current debate, no matter how heated, shouldn’t result in a permanent strain on the coexistence of different cultures and religions. It requires both sides to exercise self-criticism and self-control.
In fact, in the U.S. and elsewhere, Muslim engagement in government and civil society is often in short supply. There is a lack of vocal protest against the countless inhumanities and acts of terrorism that are committed in the name of Allah, and a lack of public support for allied troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Similarly, criticism is far too rare of the shameful fact that Christians in Islamic countries are prohibited from establishing places of worship and churches.
Likewise, Muslims in turn have a right to expect from Christians (as well as from non-believers) that a fundamental differentiation be made between Islam and the perversion of Islam, which includes the crimes of September 11. Islam and terror have as little to do with one another as Christianity and terror. A victory by opponents of the mosque would give the Islamists an opening pitch: they wait to expose the true face of the “godless West” that they allege is fighting Islam, and use it for their own propaganda purposes.
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