Muslim communities have long been established in American cities and towns and when a new Mosque is constructed it seldom generates enough controversy to interest the national media. Mega-Mosques , on the other hand, are another matter. Two are much in the news.
One is in Murfreesboro, Tennessee right in the heart of the “Bible belt”, a somewhat obscure term that refers to the central part of the United States which is predominantly Protestant and fundamentalist. It is not the fact that there is a Mosque in Murfreesboro, there has long been an Islamic congregation in this city of 100,000, it is rather the size of the new Mosque. It is to be a mega-Mosque, and that is the source of the controversy As is typical in American politics there have been confrontational public meetings and much discussion of local zoning restrictions. Politicians have weighed in on both sides. Likewise civic leaders. It must be strongly stated that the Christian faction supporting the proposed Mosque is every bit as outspoken (and far more reasoned) as is the faction that is against the Mosque, which is notably Islamophobic. This sets the pattern.
The other Mosque in the news represents a much larger matter. This is the controversy surrounding the proposed Islamic center , Cordoba House, that is to be built two blocks away from the site of the destroyed WorldTradeCenter, often referred to as Ground Zero. Because this site is considered sacred ground -- although not so sacred that a commercial building cannot be constructed on it—the fact that a Mosque is proposed for a location two blocks away is considered by some to be an affront. Public meetings have been strident and bitter. Politicians have turned their faces toward the TV cameras to express support --or give dire warnings. Both the Governor of New York State and the mayor of New York City have come out foursquare in support of the proposed Cordoba House Cultural Center citing the freedom of religion that is embedded in the 1st amendment to The Constitution (…Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.. or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…). Mayor Bloomberg has stated directly that to forbid the construction of the Mosque would be victory for the terrorists. Many agree , including Governor Deval Patrick of the neighboring state of Massachusetts.
Rightwing politicians, who are drawn to publicity as surely as thirsty cattle are drawn to water, have uniformly come out against the Mosque. They have presented a variety of objections, some of them Islamophobic and conspiratorial to the point of clinical paranoia. This is extremely sad but should not be unexpected. Publicity, and especially television, is the red meat of American politics and, for some, the more outrageous and untruthful the statement the better, i.e., the more likely you will garner time before the television camera. The equation is simple: the television camera equals notoriety. That is what drives this process which is self-reinforcing because the media needs to present news, and politicians need to be in the news. This process will swiftly drive a local controversy to national dimensions.
So it is that an outside and objective observer might be forgiven for supposing that the construction of this Mosque is by far the most important issue in New York City, which, by the way, already has 100 Mosques. It is not. It is the broadcast media that exaggerates the degree of Islamophobia in New York City and in the United States as a whole.
A far more sober measure of American attitudes toward Islam is to be found in the realm of literature. The books that scholars and theologians have recently written provide a more tempered and accurate picture of American attitudes toward Islam and the Muslim community. In other words, if one only looks at the wild, twenty-four hour spikes of the broadcast media, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the long-term trend of American opinion. This is better revealed by the works of scholars and the interests of their readership.
The most longstanding literary area is to be found in the writings about and by the poet Jalal ud-din Rumi. With few exceptions, the larger bookstores in the United States maintain a section devoted to his writings as well as to writings about him. Some bookstores are almost exclusively devoted to Rumi. This is unsurprising. By many accounts Rumi is the most popular poet in the United States. His poetry, his philosophy, and his devotion to Islam are widely known and very influential, extending even to American hip hop.
There is an additional and rapidly growing body of literature that is as important as it is hopeful. To use an American expression, it has come in “under the radar”, i.e. it has seemingly not been noticed, and, indeed, it has not gotten the attention that I think it deserves. To be direct, in recent years there has been a remarkable number of books of the highest scholarship by both Christian and Islamic scholars on the history and nature of Islam. In depth studies such as Muhammad and the Believers by Fred M Donner (Belknap Press), The Other Islam by Stephen Schwartz (Doubleday), A History of Islam in America by Kambiz GhaneaBissiri (Cambridge)and Journey into America by Akbar Ahmed (Brookings Institution Press) to mention only a few are representative of this valuable genre. One might also mention the very popular and insightful books by the famous writer on religion Karen Armstrong. There are also very thoughtful and reasoned discussions of the Quran such as the one by Farid Esack. Such books, published by both scholarly presses and popular presses, are readily available the reading public. This already numerous readership, almost entirely Christian, provides a far better indication of the true level of acceptance of Islam and the Muslim community in the United States.
By Prof. Jon T. Oplinger.