Near Ground Zero, the Sacred and the Profane

[alp227]

Since long before the Islamist terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, a storefront mosque has been sitting on West Broadway in TriBeCa, a dozen blocks from the World Trade Center. No one seems to have ever minded its being there.

Now, assuming he can raise the money and clear some remaining bureaucratic hurdles, the spiritual guide of that mosque intends to build a multistory Islamic community center, including a space for prayer, on Park Place, two blocks from what is routinely called ground zero.

Cries of protest have been loud and insistent from certain quarters. They include people who lost relatives on Sept. 11 and who describe the trade center site with words like “hallowed” and “sacred.” To put an Islamic center so close, they say, would amount to a defilement.

At least now, in terms of geography, we know where outrage begins. That point is somewhere between 12 blocks and 2. The exact spot remains a mystery, though. Would it be O.K. if the Islamic center, called Cordoba House, were to be put four blocks from ground zero? Or is that still too close? How about eight blocks away?

The intention here is not to be flippant. But the question of what constitutes proper respect for the dead of 9/11 has never been simple. For some, it seems to turn solely on religion, and that puts everyone on slippery constitutional terrain.

No one is known to have protested the fact that three blocks from ground zero, on Murray Street off West Broadway, there is a strip joint. It prefers to call itself a gentlemen’s club. A man stood on the street corner the other day handing out free passes to willing gentlemen.

On Church Street, around the corner from where Cordoba House would rise, there is a store that sells pornographic videos and an assortment of sex toys. A few doors east of the planned Islamic center, there is an Off-Track Betting office. Spilling onto the sidewalk in front of it the other day were men who would have been described in my old Bronx neighborhood as degenerate gamblers.

A strip joint, a porno store and a government-run bookie operation. No one has organized demonstrations to denounce those activities as defiling the memory of the men and women who died a few hundred yards away.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/nyregion/28nyc.html

[RandomThoughts]

1. There are lots of things that have questionable value in life.

I have gambled and seen naked ladies, so not going to criticise that. Although I have thoughts on those topics.

On thinking on that topic, I can say I have tried not to hurt people while gambling. And actually when I played pool for money, I would tell people that I was pretty good, and that I would probably win, and if they wanted to try and take from me, I would oblige that game and play for money. However it feels different in that context. Sometimes long ago I might have worked a table a bit, but for the most part, and by legal definition playing pool for money is not gambling. And even much gambling seems ok if entertainment and not rigged. And if it is in moderation, by definition of being part of entertainment. And even when I counted cards at black jack I let the dealers know I was doing it.

And I think naked women are pretty, but don't go to strip clubs at least not that often. Strip club is like an agreement, you give money, they show flesh, seems wrong for both parties, in my view, but others think differently on that. Although I have seen naked women, but I also know David did not get in trouble for watching Bathsheba bathe but for other actions, so don't think on that much either. And I think women should be modest in dress, but should have choice of what that means.

Anyone wonder why her name has Bath in it? I wonder if that is where the meaning of the word Bath came from?


I think if a person is strong in their faith, a place of worship of another faith should not threaten them if taught with kindness and love, since those feelings would lead anyone to the source from which love and peace come from, especially if all love and peace comes through one intermediary, an intermediary that can be seen by different people in different ways.

[aquart]

2. Hah! A pornography is worse than terrorism analogy.

Nice try at distraction. Cordoba House, huh? Oooh, shades of the Moors who took Europe with the FLAMING SWORD OF ISLAM. Nice reference that. Gives the whole thing historical continuity.

More like, say, when the Crusaders built hulking big churches in Jerusalem. Aw, the Saracens must have felt so loving and comfy over that. Wonder if they built them near Saracen mass graves.