Despite positive statements made by some Western leaders, not least US President Barack Obama who, in his speech at Cairo University, called for dialogue and tolerance, the West has not yet made up its mind about Muslims and Islam. A heated debate is underway in the US over plans to build a mosque close to the site of the 9/11 attacks. Nearly 10 years after the terrorist operation that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center, killing 3,000 people, emotions are running high. Plans to build two other mosques -- in Brooklyn and Staten Island in New York -- are running into stiff opposition. Many Americans seem to be under the impression that mosques are a breeding ground for terrorism, Muslim places of worship a launch pad for conspiracies against Western civilisation. Last May New York City Council approved the proposal by American Muslims to build an Islamic centre and mosque called Cordoba House at a site close to Ground Zero by an overwhelming majority. Supporters of the project argue that it is a reconciliatory gesture, an attempt to improve relations between Muslims and the West, and will help correct misconceptions that have taken root in America since the 9/11 attacks. Some New Yorkers, though, insisted it was inappropriate to build a mosque close to Ground Zero. A man living near the site said lingering doubts would be hard to overcome. If you look at statistics, he added, you'll find that most terrorists are Muslims. Opposition to the project began in earnest ahead of a decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on the planned Mosque. Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, said the proposal was an unnecessary provocation. Others insisted that the choice of name was proof enough that Muslims still hark back to a time of world dominion, when they were in control of Andalusia. If there is any dialogue it is of the deaf. Those who support the mosque risk being called fanatics and fundamentalists while those who oppose it are labelled bigots and racists, if not outright enemies of Islam and Muslims. A similar situation developed recently in Germany, where the police closed down the Taiba Mosque in Hamburg on the grounds that it had been used by some of the planners of the 9/ 11 attacks and might still be used to recruit Islamic militants. Islamophobia is so widespread in Europe that one wonders if public statements about tolerance and dialogue can ever be anything other than lip service. The world seems to be moving towards the clash of civilisations propagated by Samuel Huntington in the 1990s. Either that, or it is embracing the words of the British poet Rudyard Kipling, who famously wrote that "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet".
