Daisy Khan and the Beautiful City

We can build a beautiful city, yes we can…

No, it’s not Godspell‘s ragtag flower children singing this in Manhattan today. They left New York shortly after tap-dancing on top of the still-under-construction World Trade Center.

daisy khan

This is the song of the well-dressed, post-menopausal, interfaith Religious Left during a conference call with Daisy Khan, emissary for the planned Ground Zero Mosque and Islamic Center. Khan’s husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is currently out of pocket on a tax-payer funded junket through the Middle East. Khan and Rauf intend for the Ground Zero Mosque to help shape a Muslim identity in America. And for the Religious Left, this is how to build a beautiful city in New York, a city such as New York has never seen before.

In the grand jihad (meaning “struggle,” of course) to promote religious pluralism/advance Islam in America, the liberal church elites, bereft of meaning in the wake of the Soviet State’s catastrophic fall and the vanishing significance of liberation theology, have rediscovered their destiny. Thanks to the Ground Zero Mosque, they, like President Obama, now take an unprecedented interest in freedom of religion and the U.S. Constitution. And they freely can demonize as bigots and Islamophobes, agonized opponents of the mosque who lost family and friends on 9/11, or who simply lost the city, the world, they thought they knew.

In the August 25 on-the-record conference call sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), one of the favorite hangouts of the interfaith crowd, Khan gave background on the Cordoba House Islamic Center Park 51 Community Center. Initially, Imam Rauf needed to replace the overcrowded Masjid al-Farah. Mosque member/real estate developer Sharif Gamel discovered the Burlington Coat Factory building. “Proximity to Ground Zero was never planned,” Khan declared of the building that had stood vacant since 9/11 when the landing gear and fuselage of Flight 175 crashed through its roof after shearing through the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Suddenly, Khan exclaimed, they found themselves “in a firestorm.” The band of pluralism-loving Muslims standing bravely against a raging tide of hatred merely wanted to build a diverse, interfaith center for “transformation against extremism,” with a mosque overlooking the scene of the devastation.

She never explained how plans evolved from the simple desire for a larger prayer space to determination to erect a 15-story community center. But the inconsistencies didn’t worry anyone. With her emphasis on “interfaith diversity” Daisy Khan painted a picture of a potential Utopia in lower Manhattan for her starry-eyed admirers.

Pluralism is at the heart of Islamic theology,” said Khan, without even a hint of a giggle at the absurdity of her own words. The Leftist elites must have felt a thrill going down the phone line and up their legs. But others, who actually know better, such as the people of South Sudan, may have a different view of Islamic theology. Over two million died there in an anti-pluralistic genocidal jihad. For that matter, there is also a deceptive little twist in Khan’s message. Islamic theology, no matter how much or how little it embraces religious pluralism, is trumped by Islamic law. And pluralism is hardly at the heart of the Shariah.

The “core values of Islam are completely resonant with Western values… the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ framework is behind us; there are 25 million Muslims living in the West,” Khan assured her listeners. She scoffed at those who would bring up Shariah as an issue of concern, repeating her mantra, “there is no contradiction between Muslim faith and American identity.” Then, to further reassure her mostly-clueless listeners, she traced how Islam “has moved” to countries across the world and “restated itself” in all those countries. She didn’t mention how Islam had “restated itself” with a sword, leaving a trail of blood and bodies in each of these countries. “Islam is now restating itself in America,” she guaranteed.

Throughout the call, Khan warned that opposition to “the center” was opening up the “6-8 million Muslims in America” (later she just settled on 8 million, though others have placed the population far lower) to violence and victimization. Intolerance over the center had “given rise to resistance to mosques elsewhere” too. There would be international repercussions, as well, she said. “If the center does not succeed it would be seen as a win for the extremists,” she predicted. Odd, some mosque opponents believe that if the center does succeed it would be seen as a win for the extremists.

Khan’s concerns troubled deeply her Religious Left comrades. During the Q&A they rushed to offer moral and other support. Opposition to the center was “really about Muslims’ freedom of religion,” said one. Another added that this was a “very serious matter of First Amendment rights.” Assistance was offered to Khan as she moved “into a leadership role in this country.” And others were “deeply moved” by the couples’ dedication of their lives to “interfaith work.”

One caller was “struck by the momentum of Islamic hatred.” That he was not referring to such “Islamic hatred” as the actions of Major Nidal Hassan, fatwas against South Park, or the folks carrying signs that say, “Death to America,” became disappointingly evident when he followed up his observation by asking if there were ways “we can quickly and firmly create counter-momentum.”

Khan replied that politicians and interfaith leaders “need to speak up for the sake of the “preservation of American ideals.” Counter-momentum to those who oppose the center required “a political strategy” and “a national conversation” about acceptance and respect. Assuredly a successful conversation would be one in which the United States agreed with Imam Rauf about 9/11 and admitted to being “an accessory to the crime that happened.”

A few brave souls tried to ask hard questions. One referred to Muslims around the world who disapprove of the plan, saying that “they should not stir up fitna (discord).” But Khan deflected the blame, saying that they did not “set out to create chaos. The fitna was created by people who have misconstrued our intent.” Another asked why not just look for another location, out of sense of fellow-feeling triumphing over rights. “No one should be driven out of their own neighborhood,” Khan replied. She also said that she had met with the 9/11 families and that “some of the families said that it was important” that they build the center “right there.”

Only one participant had the temerity to ask “why there was not a stronger voice from moderate Muslims against radicalism.” He added that “too few American Muslims care about the rights of minorities in Muslim lands, including hundreds of thousands of Christians in the Middle East.” Khan replied simply that the center would “amplify the voices of ordinary Muslims.” She mentioned the “very important fatwa issued right after 9/11 in which her husband had played a role. Perhaps he played a role in the fudge factor contained in that fatwa, as well. But she did not even attempt to address the issue of persecution of Christians under Islam. Fortunately, persecution of Christians in the Islamic world was not even on the radar screen for most of the other participants. Instead they concluded the call by once again thanking Khan and offering a paean of praise for Islam’s tolerance and pluralism.

The singing of “We can build a beautiful city” in Godspell concludes at Central Park’s lovely Bethesda Fountain. Not by chance. Bethesda, or Bethsaida or Beth-zatha, is Hebrew for the “house of mercy.” For to be a beautiful city, the kind that is dreamed of, prayed for, and sung about, a city must be a place of mercy. And mercy is not the heart of Islam, as much as Khan’s interfaith friends may hope for it and believe in it.

The Religious Left operatives are old hands at working to build the kingdom of man, having delegated the kingdom of God to irrelevance and anti-feminist patriarchal oppression (they prefer “the reign of God” for this reason). But this time, the kingdom they’re helping to build is the Dar al-Islam. If they think that they will be included in that “beautiful city,” they are in for a real surprise.

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