There is a very powerful moment in Richard Attenborough's movie Gandhi in which a man, amid the terrible race riots in Calcutta, tells Gandhi that he is going to hell because he killed a Muslim child. When questioned by Gandhi concerning why he would commit such a horrendous act, the man says that he was driven to it because the Muslims rioters killed his own son. Gandhi then tells the man that he knows a way out of hell. "Find a boy," Gandhi says, "whose mother and father are dead and raise him as your own. Only make sure he is a muslim and raise him as one." The man is taken aback but after a moment of reflection he is overwhelmed and kneels at the Mahatma's bedside weeping. It is a remarkably powerful moment because it is an amazing reminder of the most basic kind of religious notion of forgiveness. Peace is made not in retribution but in embracing the flip-side of anger and mourning. In other words, peace is constructed by taking the energy associated with hate and funnelling it into acts of goodness; and not just acts of goodness but acts which help us better understand those that made us angry in the first place. This is what I have to say about the Mosque on the sight of the World Trade Centre and those who oppose it. Christian ethics teach me that one should not oppose such a mosque, in fact directly the opposite. I think Christians should not oppose a mosque on the sight but should create volunteer brigades to help build it. And furthermore, they should seek to build a multi-faith centre there in which people of all faiths can come together in an open spirit that promotes understanding.
Of course if that actually happens I will be watching the skys out my window for flying pigs.
The site is not actually on the World Trade Centre site, but is two blocks away. On the joyful celebration and embracing of others - you are right on (I think tolerance is too mean a position). See especially: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/this-is-how-the-media-wor_n_712229.html
ReplyDelete"The news didn't sit well with many people in New York, most notably people who didn't live in Manhattan. This is because they were told by a gaggle of dumb Islamophobes that what was planned was a "Ground Zero mosque." Of course, the planned community center was not, strictly speaking, a "mosque." And it was most definitely not "at Ground Zero." "Ground Zero" is the site of an interminable municipal construction project. There are no plans to build a mosque there. "Ground Zero" is also not the name of a recognized New York City neighborhood, like DUMBO or Murray Hill. But, here's the thing: even if it was, the battle to stop the "Ground Zero mosque" was already lost, because there already is a mosque in that neighborhood."