Right to Peaceful Protest?

What is it about a simple proposal to build a mosque/cultural center in New York that has created a frenzy that is now mainstream news all over the world? Why is it that many Americans are very worried, insulted and scared (choose any one or all three) about this building going up at 45-51 Park Place, Manhattan? What is, undoubtedly, an effort to boost brotherhood among the city’s constantly-growing Muslim population has been foolishly misread by many Americans as: war, treason, murder, jihad and Muslims eventually taking over the United States of Absurdity! Obviously.


Over 2,000 protesters gathered at a rally on West Broadway, holding banners saying things like “Bloomberg: What is your excuse?” (City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has publicly stated his strong support for building the Islamic center) and “Kill Sheikh Os/bama”. But seriously, these protestors fail to realize that for their demand to be fulfilled, they must first petition for an amendment to the American Constitution! The facts speak for themselves- Islam is the fastest-growing religion in North America. Out of the 7 million Muslims living there, more than 70% say they actively participate in one of the country’s 1,200 plus mosque’s community-based activities. So can these protesters justify their opposition to the building of this particular mosque merely due to its proximity to Ground Zero? I mean, mosques in the US are involved in a big way in people’s daily lives. Stuff like inter-faith dialogue, programs to help the needy, youth meets and Sunday-schools to teach kids the religion and keep them away from social-evils like alcohol and drugs. If that’s such a crime in today’s day and age, what has the world come to?

Following this saga on CNN, I was surprised to see that (for once) they interviewed both the protest and the counter-protest. The protesters feel that the building of this mosque is a metaphor of what they fear Obama is trying to do to American society. A society which accepts, encourages and thrives on its multi-cultural diversity seems to scare them. Many observers feel that these protests are a sort-of proxy war against this trend.

The counter protest was a pitifully small group in comparison. Without a stage or a set of amplifiers, they consisted of a few dozen people with signs like “America, when did it become okay to be a bigot and a racist again?” Among them, a man told a reporter, "This has nothing to do with the mosque. They are just racist haters. That's not the America we know. I've been living here 40 years."

He pointed to a 10-year old boy in a red baseball cap, his grandson. "His father is a United States Marine. Where are we going to go? This is our country....They have opinions, that's fine. But don't hate Islam. Those who did wrong, they should be punished. But the same thing is true for the group in the White House that killed 1.5 million Iraqis. They should be punished." Strong sentiments like these were expressed on both sides. The truth, is, usually bitter.


But what can we, the youth of a country on the other side of the globe learn from such an issue? It’s simple, really: compromise. In my humble opinion, the group that wants to build the mosque, doing such a noble job, should not have any objections to a change of location, if only to maintain peace in the city. Furthermore, the protesters have no real basis to their claims that it’s a sign of ‘disrespect’ to the 9/11 victims- the terrorists on 9/11 were nothing, if not the antithesis of the followers of Islam- the religion of peace. As John F. Kennedy famously said, “World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor -- it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.” Wise words.

NOTE: I wrote the above article for a youth political magazine called 'Spectrum' and it was written accordingly. Thank You.