A History of Prejudice by Deepa Rajan

Park51 is a rather innocuous name for an issue that is in fact creating a furore in the United States. The brainchild of Imam Feisal Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, Park51 is the project which lays down plans to build a Muslim cultural centre and mosque, situated two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City. Although approved by city authorities, as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it’s safe to say that these plans will probably never see the light of day with the continuous avalanche of uproar that it faces.  With the debate gaining momentum, it has become a test for a slew of issues, from public opinion, political posturing to religious tolerance.

While some opponents are genuinely concerned about the issue that an Islamic cultural centre near the hallowed Ground Zero might be offensive to the families of victims, there are many opponents whose arguments are fuelled by a worrisome Islamophobia. Since August, the site has seen demonstrators in hordes carrying signs like “All I Need to Know About Islam, I Learned on 9/11.”  The Park 51 protests is a result of brewing intolerance against Muslims in America since 9/11 that have crystallized and strengthened over the past few years. Where ordinary citizens are concerned, there is evidence that hostilities are growing.  “Islamophobia has become the accepted form of racism in America,” comments Muslim-American writer Arsalan Iftikhar. A TIME-Abt SRBI poll has shown findings which indicate that 46% Americans believe that Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions, with a simultaneous 61% opposing the Park51 project.

The arguments presented by the detractors of Islam are common. Islam must necessarily be a violent creed, since those who conducted the 9/11 attacks were Muslims. Passages from the Koran are taken out of context and recited as examples to prove that Islam is a savage, backward creed- a death cult to which constitutional freedoms don’t apply.

A further problematic observation is that intolerance, in the history of America, is in no way isolated to Islam. Mormons, Jews and other religious, cultural and ethnic groups are still victims of hate speech in a nation founded on ideals that profess religious freedom and tolerance. Not just isolated to prominent pastors from Gainesville, Florida  announcing intentions of burning Korans on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, this form of discrimination dates as far back as to the founding of colonies. In early colonial life, Quakers, Lutherans, Catholics and Jews were vigorously expelled from the Puritan colonies in New England. Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland (currently New York) is known for his refusal to allow Jews from Northern Brazil to settle permanently in New Amsterdam in 1654. 

Peter Stuyvesant

In a letter to the Dutch West India Company, Stuyvesant fervently argued that “the deceitful race—such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ—be not 

allowed to further infect and trouble this new colony.” By the 1800s, forced expulsion was a fairly common practice in America, marked by the Indian Removal Act signed into law by President Andrew Jackson. 

Artistic rendering of the The Cherokee Trail of Tears(1836-1839)

The murder of Joseph Smith(1844)

In the aftermath of its passing, Cherokee Indians were removed from their lands, with the Department of the Interior subsequently outlawing a list of “offensive” Native American rituals. 1844 saw a mass migration of Mormons to Utah; as a result of the violent lynching and murder of Mormon founder Joseph Smith in an Illinois prison. The Ku Klux Klan proceeded to taint American history by putting into place their malicious brand of intolerance, amassing over 4 million members in a crusade of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism. To make matters worse, the trying period of the Second World War was marred by a new dimension of religious hatred that Roman-Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin put forward in American culture, with decidedly anti-Semitic radio addresses. Defending Nazism and Fascism, Coughlin blamed the Depression on an "international conspiracy of Jewish bankers” in a viral CBS radio broadcast. 

A Ku Klux Klan recruitment poster circa 1920

Reverend Charles Coughlin

Today, nearly a quarter of the American population still erroneously thinks Obama is Muslim, probably because of his numerous endeavors to improve America’s tainted image in the Islamic world. His outreach to the American-Muslim though has been much quieter, and so, when Muslims like Imam Rauf and his wife set out to build formal mosques, they are rendered exposed, and vulnerable.

Intolerance, though metamorphosing over periods of time, seems to continue to remain firmly woven in the fabric of American society. Perceptions of Islam have worsened significantly in the past two years. Until a distinction is made between religion and fanaticism, and an understanding reached, that American-Muslims represent a diaspora of every race and sect of Islam, Park51- even if it comes through by way of some miracle- will remain a soulless, empty gesture at most.