By standing his ground on the Cordoba project, Obama has not just reinvented his own leadership, but has led the world to rediscover America, writes Aijaz Zaka Syed* Faith heals. Faith is the power that lights up the darkest corners and crevices of the universe to show the way forward. Faith unites and empowers. It creates hope and helps us build a better world, not destroy it. Faith is peace. Faith is love. Faith is what keeps the earth moving on its axis and the universe going. Why is the world then going bananas over a harmless mosque? A mosque is a mosque, whether it's in Mecca or Manhattan. The Cordoba House was supposed to foreground firm rejection of the hatred and extremism epitomised by the 9/11 attacks and to constitute a monument to a new start between America and the world's Muslims. Instead, it has ended up the most explosive issue since 11 September to inflame US-Islam relations. It has sparked a new wave of Islamophobia in America and the West, providing the extremist fringe on either side of the Atlantic a new stick to beat Muslims with. So it takes real guts for leaders like Michael Bloomberg to stick their necks out to cheer for the Islamic centre, now named Park 51. In fact, if President Barack Obama mustered the courage to back the mosque at a White House Iftar, he may have been encouraged to do so after the Jewish mayor of New York made a passionate and eloquent case for the project, earning himself all-round praise and admiration. Just when Obama's legion of dejected admirers, including yours truly, were beginning to lose all hope they seem to have rediscovered their lost hero, or at least some of his lost magic and splendour. Predictably, the Iftar speech opened the floodgates of fury and all the venom of long pent-up Islamophobia. Even the most liberal and generous commentators and pundits seem to have been surprised, not pleasantly by any means, by the president's championing of an ostensibly lost cause. You have to really watch TV networks like Fox News and scan the commentary and blogs in the US media to get a taste of the "Muslims Are Coming!" blitz that is rocking the length and breadth of America. And it's not just fruitcakes on the fringe but veteran Republicans like Rush Limbaugh ("Imam Hussein Obama is the best anti-American president we have ever had.") who are leading the offensive. To Obama's credit, he has stood his ground with great dignity in the face of this maelstrom that now threatens his presidency and certainly his re-election. He has refused to be cowed by the blistering, collective pressure brought on him by the neocons, media wonks and assorted lobbies and conspiracists. The NBC interview Monday night was no mean feat where he asserted: "If you can build a church, a synagogue or a temple on that site, then we can't treat people of the Islamic faith differently." Simple words but historic in their sweep and solemnity. I don't really envy Obama. This being an election year and both Democrats and Republicans already girding up their loins for the 2012 battle royale, the pressure is too much for the president. These are not the best of times to bat for the Muslims. Especially when, according to latest opinion polls, every fifth American has convinced himself their president is a closet Muslim. So much so the White House had to issue a statement asserting Obama is not a Muslim like his father but a practising Christian. But this is a challenge that Obama can't run away from. Like it or not, the Ground Zero row has not just become a trial by fire of his own leadership but a litmus test for America as a nation and what it has long claimed to be -- the land of the free where everyone is welcome, no matter where you come from, what you look like or to which God you turn in prayer. It's this image of America that has attracted dreamers from around the world, including those from Muslim lands, who put their lives on the line to make it to El Dorado. This reputation has survived Washington's duplicity in the Middle East, numerous wars in the Muslim world and the shame of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and other atrocities. Even today, millions of Arabs and Muslims would give their right arm to escape the oppressive tyranny and poverty in their own lands to live the American dream. This is chiefly because of the genuine political and religious freedom America has historically offered everyone, regardless of the colour of their skin or origins. This endless bickering over the mosque is therefore unfortunate and strikes at the very roots of the America of Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln. What was supposed to have been a forum for dialogue and reconciliation between America and Muslims now threatens to deepen the divide. In fact, the heated debate in the US is now reverberating across the world. The whole thing has become a symbol of America's troubled ties with the Islamic world, getting caught in the same toxic clash of civilisations debate that is being played out all across the West, with the ban on the veil and minarets in Europe thrown in for good measure. Distressed by the increasingly vicious campaign, many Muslims and other sane voices have suggested calling off the whole thing, as building a mosque so close to the site that witnessed the outrage, ostensibly carried out by Muslims, adds insult to injury. But by the same logic, opposing the mosque because some Muslims might have been behind the attacks implies associating all believers with the shame of 9/11. When you connect all Muslims to the attacks, you link terrorism with Islam. Which is the ultimate outrage against a religion that has been around for 15 centuries, long before Al Qaeda and America came into existence. It is, as the man behind the Cordoba project argues, like blaming Christianity for Hitler's crimes against humanity. Unfortunate and despicable as 9/11 was, it had nothing to do with Islam or Muslims. No religion sanctions violence against innocents -- especially not a faith that repeatedly warns against bloodshed and creating strife on God's earth. Kill a human being and you kill all of humanity, warns the Quran; save a life and you save mankind. Whether or not the Cordoba project eventually goes ahead, it's about time the world stopped blaming Islam and punishing Muslims for the violent actions of a group of fanatics, for they do not represent or speak for the 1.5 billion believers or their faith. They stand, if they stand for anything, for a nihilistic cult of death, not Islam, which respects life in all its breathtaking diversity. Besides, if it's any consolation to anyone, there were many Muslims among those killed on 11 September 2001. Those opposing the Park 51 do not just reject Islam or Muslims; they end up justifying the cause of extremists. Hatred begets hatred. You can only take on hatred with love, not with greater hatred. * The writer is opinion editor of Khaleej Times.
