U.S. President Barack Obama will return from his ten-day vacation next week, and on his return he is likely to find the nation polarized along religious lines as well as politically. This is the case ahead of any major election in the United States. This time round however, the political temperature is soaring over the prospect of all seats in the House and a third of those in the Senate coming up for grabs in November's mid-term elections.
The Republicans hope to win many of the contested seats back from the Democrats and even to regain control over both chambers of Congress. They only have to push hard. Already, a battle is on for the hearts and minds of undecided and swing voters who may have become disenchanted with the Obama Administration after its first two years in office.
Indeed, the nation has changed a lot since electing its first African American president in November 2008. Back then, almost half the voters were convinced that Obama is a Christian. They had every reason to think this, because, as a teenager, he attended a Catholic school in Indonesia, and on settling in Chicago he became a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. But the current pre-election fever has created confusion in the voters' minds, and only 34% can now imagine Obama as a follower of Christ. At the end of August 2010, one in every five Americans thought he was a Muslim. The rest admit they are not sure about his faith or whether he is even a believer, to begin with.
As in many other countries, the most active among America's electorate have always been responsive to political witchcraft of all sorts. But it would have taken quite a potion to get them as riled as this, and it turned out that in today's volatile America the ingredients were there for the taking. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the preceding 9/11 terror attack touched the raw nerve of racism and religious intolerance, the hatred and mistrust of the 'other' that permeates American society. After all, what is to be expected when, more often than not, terrorist attacks are accompanied by the cry of "Allah Akhbar" rather than "Amen" or "Halleluja."
These tensions have been stoked by the recently announced plan to build an Islamic community center in New York City, the most cosmopolitan of all America's metropolises. What makes it all the more controversial is that the site for the new project has been chosen just two blocs away from Ground Zero. This prompted the Republicans to dub it "the Ground Zero Mosque."
In fact, however, the construction of a new mosque in New York is envisaged as part of a multifunctional center, whose thirteen floors will house a library, a cafe, a culinary school, several recreation and conference facilities, as well as shops.
Sure enough, the Republicans are now trying to eke some political capital out of the controversy surrounding this project. And rhetoric is part of that spin, reminiscent of Mark Twain's short story "Running for Governor."
Right-wing Republicans argue the construction of a mosque so near the place where the World Trade Center towers were razed to the ground in a jihadi attack nine years ago would be tantamount to displaying Nazi insignia outside the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., building a Ku Klux Klan church near an African American house of worship in a southern state like Alabama, or erecting a monument to glorify the conquest of foreign lands. They describe this project as an insult to the loved ones of the almost 3,000 Americans killed in the 9/11 attack. Yet, New York's authorities responsible for the protection of memorials have already given the project the green light, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg has expressed his support, as have most of the city's residents. But NYC, with all its conspicuous cosmopolitism, can by no means speak for the American heartland, which is far more conservative in its attitudes.
Judging by recent surveys by the U.S. organization the Pew Research Center, 68% of Americans opposed the construction of an Islamic community center near Ground Zero. And the Republicans are skillfully using this opportunity to fan xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment, which they hope will bring them more protest votes in November.
But the story is not as simplistic as it may appear on the face of it. In such a sensitive and increasingly explosive area as interfaith co-existence, it takes at least two to upset the balance. Laying all the blame at one door just doesn't make sense. The cause, however petty, is often as important here as the effect. Most Americans, as many as 55%, have nothing against a mosque or an Islamic community center being built in the vicinity of their own house in any other American city. So why not just move the site a bit farther from Ground Zero, if only out of respect for the terrorism-related sensitivities? The freedom to worship any faith is one of the American nation's underlying values, but it should not be exercised at the expense of others. Why so close? As it happens, there are two mosques in the neighborhood already...
Incidentally, the overall number of mosques across the United States has now topped 1,200. And the exact number of Muslims living in the country is anyone's guess, as federal agencies conducting censuses are not allowed to ask people about their religious affiliation. As for surveys, they suggest a range between 2.5 million (according to Pew) and 7 million (according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations).
Obama entered the mosque dispute at the very beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. He said that in the United States, any person has the right to worship any religious faith and to build a house of worship according to any tradition, including Islam. The next day, the White House specified in a statement that the president was talking in general about religious freedom and that his words should not be interpreted as an expression of support for any particular project. But it was already too late, with many undecided and swing voters now convinced that Obama is another step closer to Islam.
It remains to be seen whether this plan to build an Islamic community center in the center of New York will become a reality. Those behind it have not yet agreed on the design, and still have to close the deal to purchase the site. And again, navigating past the bureaucratic pitfalls of New York's real estate authorities is a challenge that has made many developers put their projects on the backburner. This particular project may succeed where others failed. But it is highly unlikely to make the country's interfaith relations any more harmonious.
RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
