A Day of Grief Righteously Disrupted
Why pro-mosque protests needed to happen on 9/11
Monday, September 27th, 2010
Contrary to popular belief, the Islamic Cultural Center is not about stomping on the memory of those who passed away on 9/11. It’s about making a statement that nothing can divide this country, and that we will stand united, even in the harshest of times.
Illustration by Kim Funk
insensitive to the memory of those who died in 2001. If it would have changed anything, those of us holding the counter-protest in favor of the Islamic Cultural Center would have done
it on a different day. But it wouldn’t have made a difference. A rally including Tea Partiers and everyone else who opposes Park 51, still would have taken place and we in favor of the Islamic Cultural Center wouldn’t have been there to counteract their words.
My friends — also New School students — and I held up a sign that read, “Inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world,” which is from the Declaration of Human Rights. This was in stark contrast to Tea Partiers’ signs that read, “What would Jesus do? … Get his throat slit by Mohammed,” and shirts that read, “Only a dead Taliban is a good Taliban.”
During the rally for unity in front of City Hall — which did not encroach on Ground Zero — speakers called the names of Muslims who died during the 9/11 attacks. Just like the speakers, I was affected by the events of September 11, 2001. My uncle worked in one of the Twin Towers and walked out just before the first plane hit. He heard the noise, turned around and saw a vision that still haunts him today. It has caused my uncle — who lost many friends — a considerable amount of grief, along with members of my family that lived in New York, and breathed in the ash for months.
As I walked around Ground Zero on September 11, 2010, I tried to find solace along with families mourning their loved ones and hope in the faces of the people who entered the memorial — it was open for those who had lost family members on 9/11. But what I found was a man playing his guitar and singing about how he had lost his son being overshadowed by
a man standing next to him yelling about how we all needed to repent or we were going to Hell. So many people there were trying to make sense of why those they care about are no longer living, and all this man could do was shove his beliefs in their faces.
Sharif Chowdhury, a man whose daughter and son-in-law died during the World Trade Center attack was quoted in *the Times* as saying of the proposed Islamic Cultural Center: “If you want to stop this, you have to change the Constitution.” And the Tea Partiers were out there on
Saturday fighting the Bill of Rights. They're anti-freedom of religion if that religion isn’t Christianity. They’re anti-freedom of speech if the words being spoken are not in favor of keeping Islam out of the US. And they’re anti-holding a peaceful protest — because if it involves Islam, it must be violent.
During the rally for unity in front of City Hall — which did not encroach on Ground Zero — speakers called the names of Muslims who died during the 9/11 attacks. Just like the speakers, I was affected by the events of September 11, 2001. My uncle worked in one of the Twin Towers and walked out just before the first plane hit. He heard the noise, turned around and saw a vision that still haunts him today. It has caused my uncle — who lost many friends — a considerable amount of grief, along with members of my family that lived in New York, and breathed in the ash for months.
As I walked around Ground Zero on September 11, 2010, I tried to find solace along with families mourning their loved ones and hope in the faces of the people who entered the memorial — it was open for those who had lost family members on 9/11. But what I found was a man playing his guitar and singing about how he had lost his son being overshadowed by
a man standing next to him yelling about how we all needed to repent or we were going to Hell. So many people there were trying to make sense of why those they care about are no longer living, and all this man could do was shove his beliefs in their faces.
Sharif Chowdhury, a man whose daughter and son-in-law died during the World Trade Center attack was quoted in *the Times* as saying of the proposed Islamic Cultural Center: “If you want to stop this, you have to change the Constitution.” And the Tea Partiers were out there on
Saturday fighting the Bill of Rights. They're anti-freedom of religion if that religion isn’t Christianity. They’re anti-freedom of speech if the words being spoken are not in favor of keeping Islam out of the US. And they’re anti-holding a peaceful protest — because if it involves Islam, it must be violent.
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