Last night, a community board in Manhattan approved the siting of a new Islamic community center near Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center towers fell on 9\/11.<\/p>\n
Some critics, according to the New York Times<\/a>, say the location is an “affront to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.”<\/p>\n I don’t see it that way.<\/p>\n In the months after the terror bombings, I noticed with real excitement — it was the first hope I had felt in weeks — that New York City was rich\u00a0 with opportunities for understanding the Muslim world.<\/p>\n There were art exhibits, musical performances, works of theater, panel discussions, religious round-tables, all offering insight into Islam, its literature, its beauty and complexity.<\/p>\n Many had been scheduled before the attacks.\u00a0 But people were going on with these events.\u00a0 They were unbowed by the savagery of a small group of cancerous and pathetically Medieval souls.<\/p>\n But there is a problem with this dialogue, a kind of creeping unreality, that we’re still struggling to address.<\/p>\n Too often, even the vast majority of Muslims who are nonviolent bring with them to the West values and cultural assumptions that are — put bluntly — morally unacceptable to us.<\/p>\n Most of these practices involve the revolting denigration of women, including the practice of enforced arranged marriages, as well as veiling and shrouding (the niqab).<\/p>\n When I lived in Malaysia, I spoke once to a young girl whose Muslim father had just returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca.<\/p>\n In a few short weeks, she said, his once modern and tolerant views had changed dramatically.<\/p>\n Because he had become more conservative, her entire life would change.\u00a0 She would be forced to take the veil.\u00a0 She would be forced into a marriage, likely with someone she had never met.<\/p>\n She was terrified and powerless.<\/p>\n