What really caused the controversy

By now everyone knows there is a controversy surrounding the building of a mosque near ground zero, but has anyone wondered why?  And I mean the real reason why, not what can be heard from the media. 

What we hear on the surface is anchors and politicians arguing whether or not it is sensitive to build a mosque two blocks away from ground zero, whether Muslims should have that right, and what the American people think about it.  But it has not been as clean as it sounds.  The media has been corrupting information through the use of buzz words, such as “ground zero mosque”, creating the mental picture of a mosque planted right on top of where the World Trade Center towers once stood, which is completely false.  Politicians on their part are abusing the publicity of the building of the mosque to demagogue the issue, armed with the timing of the 9^th anniversary of 9/11.

 Both entities are playing with fire.  They are facilitating the division of the nation, and creating a hostile environment between faiths.  They are putting their own interests before the interests of the nation.   The media wants more rating, while politicians see this as an opportunity for free campaigning for the upcoming elections and future political ambitions.  

It is sad that a lot of news channels are merely functioning as the venue for all this turmoil.  What is even worse is that some, such as Fox news, allow unfounded statements to circle around their channel without challenging them, as if silently agreeing.  They also give room to illogical politicians who make absurd statements, as in the case of former House Speaker Newt Ginrich.  He dared compare Muslims to Nazis.  He didn’t say radical Muslims who are terrorists, he generalized and compared the entire Muslim population to Nazis.  How sick.  Furthermore, Sean Hannity stated that the Imam wanted to make America sharia law compliant, emphasizing the radical aspects and interpretations of the system.  He denies the public the right to know that sharia law is agreed upon by all Muslims, but that its requirements are interpreted differently according to denominations, such as moderate , liberals, etc.   He has his own personal agenda of supporting the ideology he believes in.

Politicians could show more intelligence and make logical and respectful opinions.  The media could stop allowing this issue to be a manifestation of the mean world syndrome, where it has become a consensus that Americans blame Islam for 9/11 and that’s why the mosque is so controversial.  But the public can also do its part.  We as citizens should learn to question our sources and listen to different point of views.  People should be aware that if we only stick to our traditional sources, chances are we merely confirming what we already believe, and won’t usually get all sides of the story.

To conclude, I would like to go back to the question at the top:  What is really the cause of the controversy?  The answer is in each and every paragraph.  The media and politicians are in a vicious circle of mutualism where the media uses politicians on their interviews for ratings, and politicians use the media for campaigning.  If neither had seen in the building of the mosque, because of the timing of the 9/11 anniversary, a potential resource, the issue might not have been but a zoning issue.  After all, it is primarily a community center with a mosque, there are other mosques near the area, and overall there is not an appreciable symbolic meaning.  Has anyone considered that perhaps the Muslim community, after being so discriminated in the post 9/11 years, is simply trying to restore their dignity? This could explain why they refuse to move their community center to another location.  It is true that the families of the 9/11 victims have been tremendously hurt, but it is also true that numerous Muslims across the country have been mistreated for something they did not do, or support.

A tragedy time can't leave behind

The 9th anniversary of 9/11 is very near. As that lamented event grows more distant from our present each year, its significance and effect become clearer to me. I was still a child when the attack happened. At 12 years old, I knew something terrible had happened because some malignant characters had killed hundreds of people, but I didn’t understand the magnitude of the effects of that attack. I believed the threat would be temporary. I thought no one was more powerful than the U.S. That the U.S. would simply get them back, maybe even go to war, but would certainly win. I still thought there was a winner in a war.


My experience was a little bit different than most citizens since I had only been in this country for two years. It was enough time for me to allow my identity to adjust to a new life. It wasn’t enough time to get a good sense of who the U.S. was or to integrate significantly with its culture. Still, the U.S. was my new home, and in it lived brothers and sisters of all cultures. It took a really graphic documentary to hit the rock bottom of my emotions. I felt emptiness mixed with pain, fear, shock, and other indescribable feelings. The documentary was a compilation of raw videos from the citizens who witnessed the attack. It was hard to digest the idea that I was not watching a movie, that all the panic and terror shown on the film was completely real. I had never seen someone die right before my eyes. That day I saw dozens. Although not at first hand, the video allowed me to witness how people jumped from the Twin Towers killing themselves in the act. Our natural instinct tells us to fight death. For someone to be forced to suicide seeking a less painful death or in an act of panic is simply inhumane.

As a child, in Mexico, my image of the U.S. was that of an invincible country. When I migrated here and learned a little bit about its history and international status, I discovered that indeed the U.S. is a very powerful nation. However, my concept of this country was limited to the mind of a 12 year old. It is now as an adult that I have a more complex concept of this nation, but this nation was not the same after the terrorist’s attacks of 9/11. That’s why I say I only know the post 9/11 America. Unlike all the adults who lived through the attacks, I don’t feel like I have a point of reference, a time that I could compare to the present. Most of my life in the U.S. has been spent aware of its vulnerability to an attack. Ironically, and ashamed to admit, I had not been as conscious to the fact that all this time we had been at war. Probably because it was not fought in our soil, the media doesn’t give it much coverage, and because no immediate relative was fighting the war. The government says the war is over, but as a journalism student, I’m learning to hear past what is being said. Part of my task and personal goal is to draw conclusions and opinions only after being well informed. As I learn more and take a deeper look into the 9/11 attacks and the war, its significance amplifies and I lament more. It is a tragedy that time can’t leave behind.


My most sincere condolences to the families of all the fallen soldiers throughout this war, and the families of the people who lost their lives September 11, 2001.