Editor’s Note: The following is the personal opinion of the writer and is not necessarily the official position of the U.S. Army or the Syracuse University Army ROTC program.

When I raised my right hand three years ago to join the Army ROTC, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. I chose to keep private my views regarding political and social hot topics, as I did not think it proper to voice my opinion regarding such matters, given my career choice. I now see a direct challenge to what I swore to uphold, and much to my dismay, it’s from my fellow Americans. Enough is enough.

This Islamic center is not a slap in the face to Americans. If anything, it is a slap in the face to the terrorists and their ideologies. By embracing the Islamic center so close to the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center, we say to the world that we are a greater people than the evildoers who attacked us while preaching hate and religious manipulation, that we do not believe it is America vs. Islam.

The legality of the Islamic center’s construction is not in question. Rather, the sensitivity of the Islamic center’s proximity to ground zero is the lynchpin of the entire issue. If the radius of what qualifies as ground zero’s hallowed ground extends two blocks to the location of the Islamic center, then what about the other establishments in the same radius? A strip club? A betting parlor? Neither establishment would be allowed so close to Auschwitz or Pearl Harbor or the Pentagon. Shouldn’t all establishments in the same radius be held to the same standard, or does the ‘insensitivity’ only apply to Muslims? By the way, there is an interfaith room in the Pentagon where Muslims have prayed without protest since shortly after Sept. 11, literally footsteps from the impact site — oh my!

Unfortunately, this issue has gone far beyond a matter that only concerns the people of District 8 in New York City. Across the nation, maddened ignoramuses have embraced the psychosis of Islamophobia, allowing mob mentality and fear mongering to govern their logic and basic reasoning. Protestors have gone so far as to torch half-built mosques, stab Muslim taxi drivers and picket the streets with blood-lettered signs that advertise their biases and closed-mindedness. Mark my words: If such blatant displays of pettiness continue or escalate, there will be more attacks from extremists. This time, however, they won’t be from Saudi Arabia. They will be from places like Tennessee, Michigan, and Maine. Moderate Muslims of this nation are possibly the greatest allies we have in combating terrorism. If the Islamophobes continue on the same marching path, they will not only render the word ‘moderate’ a term of the past, they will be directly feeding the fire of Islamic extremism.

The naysayers scream, ‘Have you forgotten Sept. 11?’ in a remarkable display of ignorance. Hear me clear: I have not forgotten Sept. 11, nor have the people who support our Muslim-American brothers. The outrage and desire to destroy those who dared to attack my countrymen runs as thick in my blood as it did nine years ago. I have patiently waited nine years to begin my career in the Army and am finally a mere nine months from being entrusted with leading soldiers head-on in close combat against such enemies of freedom. However, I implore you to understand that it was not Islam that attacked America. It was 19 men of a radical group that bastardized the Islamic faith for their own political and psychotic objectives, claiming religion as their justification for their methodical propagation of evil. To hold all followers of Islam accountable for the actions of 19 ‘Muslims’ is insanity.

I consider myself a staunch patriot. However, patriotism is not merely a matter of destroying the nation’s enemies, playing the national anthem or wearing an American flag pin. It is a matter of standing for the principles we have collectively agreed to uphold, no matter how emotionally difficult or contentious they may be at times — in this case, the principle of religious freedom. How ashamed would our nation’s ancestors be, were they to see this most precious principle undermined and derided — the very principle that brought them exile from the Old World and set the cornerstone for the greatest nation in history.

Our morals and values are at risk with this Islamic center, not from building it close to ground zero, but rather from the wave of Islamophobia that is awash across the nation as a result. One of our greatest tools in mitigating the fanatic ideology of the Sept. 11 perpetrators and their disciples is tolerance. We preach it, we write about it, we put it at the base of great statues.

But in the hour of truth, we must decide if we, in fact, stand for the principles of our Constitution, or if it is merely empty rhetoric, paid lip service by many and embodied by few.

The world is watching, and we risk undermining everything this country represents as the free world if this path of ignorance and discrimination is continued.

Matthew Karrenbauer is a senior political science and Middle Eastern studies major. He is a guest columnist and can be reached at mpkarren@syr.edu.

 

 

 

 

Published on September 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm