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Muslim victim of 9/11: “To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must ask: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother’s grave, and let her rest”

Aug 7, 2010 5:27 am By Robert Spencer

During the recent controversy over the planned Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero, Muslim spokesmen have begun claiming that Muslims were killed in the Twin Towers on 9/11, as if that somehow proves that the destruction of the towers was not an Islamic jihad attack. As they’ve done so, they’ve characteristically begun wildly to inflate the number of Muslims killed on 9/11 — Nihad Awad of Hamas-linked CAIR even claimed recently that 300 Muslims died in the Twin Towers, or 10% of the total number of victims. That is, of course, wildly absurd, but certainly a few Muslims were murdered by their jihadist coreligionists. Here we see that the daughter of one of them, however, is not in line with the plans of Feisal Abdul Rauf, Daisy Khan, and Nihad Awad.

Neda Bolourchi says: “I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world.” Indeed, what would prevent that?

“A Muslim victim of 9/11: ‘Build your mosque somewhere else,'” by Neda Bolourchi in the Washington Post, August 8 (thanks to Joseph):

I have no grave site to visit, no place to bring my mother her favorite yellow flowers, no spot where I can hold my weary heart close to her. All I have is Ground Zero.

On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I watched as terrorists slammed United Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, 18 minutes after their accomplices on another hijacked plane hit the North Tower. My mother was on the flight. I witnessed her murder on live television. I still cannot fully comprehend those images. In that moment, I died as well. I carry a hole in my heart that will never be filled. […]

I was born in pre-revolutionary Iran. My family led a largely secular existence — I did not attend a religious school, I never wore a headscarf — but for us, as for anyone there, Islam was part of our heritage, our culture, our entire lives. Though I have nothing but contempt for the fanaticism that propelled the terrorists to carry out their murderous attacks on Sept. 11, I still have great respect for the faith. Yet, I worry that the construction of the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site would not promote tolerance or understanding; I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world. […]

There were many mosques in the United States before Sept. 11; their mere existence did not bring cross-cultural understanding. The proposed center in New York may be heralded as a peace offering — may genuinely seek to focus on “promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture,” as its Web site declares — but I fear that over time, it will cultivate a fundamentalist version of the Muslim faith, embracing those who share such beliefs and hating those who do not.

The Sept. 11 attacks were the product of a hateful ideology that the perpetrators were willing to die for. They believed that all non-Muslims are infidels and that the duty of Muslims is to renounce them. I am not a theologian, but I know that the men who killed my mother carried this message in their hearts and minds. Obedient and dutiful soldiers, they marched toward their promised rewards in heaven with utter disregard for the value of the human beings they killed. […]

The Iranian revolution compelled my family to flee to America when I was 12 years old. Yet, just over two decades later, the militant version of our faith caught up with us on a September morning. I still identify as a Muslim. When you are born into a Muslim family, there is no way around it, no choices available: You are Muslim. I am not ashamed of my faith, but I am ashamed of what is done in its name. […]

I do not like harboring resentment or anger, but I do not want the death of my mother — my best friend, my hero, my strength, my love — to become even more politicized than it already is. To the supporters of this new Islamic cultural center, I must ask: Build your ideological monument somewhere else, far from my mother’s grave, and let her rest.

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Filed Under: Islamic supremacism, mosques


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