Over the past 35 years, the following groups have been on the Christian right’s Most Wanted List: pro-choice supporters, feminists, homosexuals and all Democrats. Now, it seems as if they have a new whipping boy, Islam. Islam has taken center stage in the Christian right’s continued push to use bigotry and fear to deny Constitutional rights to all Americans in order to build a Christian nation, well the Christian Right’s version of a Christian nation, anyway.
The Christian right has manipulated the true meaning of Islam to engender enmity and dread in Americans. They have attempted to demonize an entire religion through guilt by association: Osama bin Laden is Islam; al-Qaida is Islam; therefore, terrorism is Islam. Oh, and by the way, President Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim who was actually born in Kenya and whose sole purpose is to undermine America’s Christian way of life. Nothing would be more satisfying than to write that the Christian right’s tactics have been an utter failure, but that would be untrue.
As plans to build the Cordoba House, a Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York City, have proven, the seeds planted by the Christian right are effective. The bigoted protests condemning the center as a monument to terrorists or an insult to those who died on Sept. 11 embolden the Christian right and its allies. The usual suspects on the political right have thrown their hats into the ring to oppose the building of the Cordoba House while many on the left wallow cowardly in silence waiting to see which way the winds of their constituency are blowing. The only way to quell the Christian right’s demagoguery is to take an unwavering stand against it.
The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, has not been swayed by the voices of the Christian right. Mayor Bloomberg understands the significance of not allowing America to succumb to what its enemies desire America to be. There is no greater testament to America and what it stands for than to have the Cordoba House erected near Ground Zero. It will show the world that terrorism is America’s enemy; al-Qaida is America’s enemy; Osama bin Laden is America’s enemy. And no matter how many Islamic bogeymen the Christian right pulls from the closet or from under the bed, the Cordoba House will say to the world that Islam is the friend of America. –samuel adams
