Back in the days of shields and spears whoever won the contested ground would erect a trophy. This would not be an impressive sight to us, it would be a collection of arms and armor and banners piled upon and hung from a tree or a stake in the ground. What made it significant was, of course, that the glittering bits had been taken from brave and well armed men at the cost of their lives demonstrating, say, the Athenians superiority over the Corinthians. But more importantly this quick and dirty memorial would always be raised on a field of victory and was largely a challenge to the defeated to come tear it down. Any offense to the trophy was an act of war, all sides would understand this. Often the first overt act of a war would be a public destruction of the trophy that ended the last war or battle. But many a trophy stood, rusting and rotting, for decades on the road to a once great city, now reduced to a village. The project to build a mosque within a call-to-prayer from New York’s open mass grave is best understood as a trophy.

That’s not what the project bigs or their apparently numerous allies in government say, of course. This, they say, is a “muslim cultural center” not a mosque at all. Heck, didn’t you know Ossama was against any building taller than five stories? How could we have a thirteen story mosque? I guess when you pray prostrate five times a day the distinction between mosque and not-mosque is blurry but there is no doubt, is there? that islamic sermonising, proseletyzing and holy observations will go on here. Whether there will be the customary shrieking command to bow towards Mecca broadcast to the block is not clear but it seems plain that if this is no mosque, it still quacks like one.

The quick and reflexive denial of the obvious should always make one curious and in this case it certainly has. This fellow Rauf whose title is murky has left a slime trail on the intertubes, as do we all. His position on the 911 attacks is ecumenical; it encompasses everyone, even you! and attaches no especial responsibility to islam at large. This is, naturally, not very controversial. About half the electorate shares this view, or so the Democrats hope. More troubling is the mysterious source of funding for this undertaking. Outside government, $100 million is still a hefty sum, but there is no explanation for this forthcoming. Do we know anyone with a habit of throwing googlbux at such endeavors? Hmm, maybe a couple. So we will have to guess.

But none of the foregoing is really crucial. If Rauf could prove that his backers were nothing but devout gradeschoolers sending in their pennies eight at a time it would not dent at all the simple fact that this place of worship, prayer and reflection (only occassionally a stoning, genital mutilation or beheading) is at its core a triumphalist statement celebrating the greatest blow in the modern history of jihad.

This simple recognition, come to easily by the NASCAR crowd, effects the Professional Left like sunlight does a teen vampire. There is weeping, there is wailing. Sometimes, you will see smoke. Implosion or explosion are equally likely and violent. Jihad, you see, scarcely exists in this sense. Sure, there are islamic militants… hey, terrorist is what the big army calls the small army…. but they are not many or really as organized as you neo-con-artists claim. And there are Christian Terrorists too, you know! And Jewish Terrorists… man, there is a whole COUNTRY of those! And so on.

Obviously we are in a conflict of opinion not too ammenable to compromise. For this reason I support the completion and operation of the Cordoba Cultural Center, in its original conception, in its original scale and needless to say, at its original location. Will this be an affront? Oh yeah. Sadly it will be a most pointed affront to those who need no more offending but our numerous 911 survivors must be asked to sacrifice once more. Why? Because, as with so much of our national malady, what is lacking here is a seriousness of mind among certain of our citizens, these being over-represented in government lately. The Cordobans, in our view, are aiming to rub America’s collective nose in the mess at Ground Zero. That is because, of course, they think and say that we MADE the mess. Those of us trying (with greater success) to communicate the reality of the day to our unhearing countrymen can endorse this pragmatically. We also need America, or a sector of America, to have their snouts pushed into the steaming pile of jihad that has accrued in New York for clarity’s sake.

And if the not-mosque actually does prove to be a benign or even benevolent presence then this is likewise to the good. Will these rarely seen Moderate Muslims aggregate there? That is what the domestic friends of the Cordobans expect. And that would, properly, let at least some air out of the jihad boogeyman, if that is what it is. Let us see, then. Let us see.

And let the experiment take place in the heart of media and government so that, whatever the results, they will be living intimately with them.

 

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Tags: race & culture, terror & war // 1 Comment »