By Patricia H. Kushlis
From the 8th century AD until 1236 when it fell to the Reconquista, Córdoba was recognized not only as the most important and enlightened city in the West but also for multi-religious, multi-ethnic tolerance where peoples of the three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism co-existed peacefully under the Moors. In Hebrew, the kingdom of which Córdoba was the capital was called Sefarad and in Arabic al-Andalus. The languages spoken were Latin, Mozarabic (an Arabic language spoken by Christians), Arabic and Hebrew.
This capital city, situated on the Guadalquivir River in today’s Spanish southern province of Andalucia, grew to a population of at least 250,000 at its height. Its medieval university was renowned. The city’s libraries included the largest of the period. Its baths, markets and complex sewage system, road infrastructure and commerce which grew during a period of peace and prosperity were unrivaled in Europe at the time.
A City of Tolerance, Well Being, Peace and Intellectual Achievement
Medieval Córdoba was also the birthplace of two of the world’s most famous intellectuals: the Jewish Maimonides (1126-98) or Musm ibn Maymun, philosopher, physician and author of Guide of the Perplexed, a book that reconciles faith and reason and influenced Judaic, Muslim and Christian thinkers including Thomas Aquinas, and the Muslim Averroёs (Ibn Rushd) (1135-1204) whose work on Aristotle also had a major impact on the Western medieval world. Yet these two intellectuals worked in no vacuum, the city was then brimming with scholars – just as New York is today: scientists, mathematicians, doctors and philosophers included. The relationship in Córdoba between Jews and Muslims was particularly strong.
Today, after centuries of neglect, the city of Córdoba thrives again – the old walled city on the Guadalquivir’s banks is surrounded by far newer construction, traffic congestion and thriving business districts- although Muslims and most Jews are long gone. They were either forced to convert or flee during the centuries of Roman Catholic rule that accompanied Ferdinand and Isabella’s Reconquista.
1984 World Heritage City
Córdoba was named a UNESCO World Heritage City in 1984 and since then has hosted a number of international conferences designed to combat various forms of religious intolerance and promote inter-faith dialog among the religious faithful.
The OSCE June 2005 Cordoba Conference on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of Intolerance, for instance, brought rabbis, imams, mullahs, priests, ministers and others to the city’s conference center directly across the street from the Mezquita, now a combination of museum and Roman Catholic Church which, in my view, would be better off – like the Aya Sofia (Agia Sophia) in Istanbul – being turned into a museum. Or, alternatively prayers should be permitted for both Christians and Muslims. The Mezquita’s gigantic: the altar and the mihrab seem miles apart.
Nevertheless, it seems only fitting that the proposed community center in New York – similar in character to the 92nd St. Y as some have described it and situated two blocks from New York’s Ground Zero - is to be named Cordoba House. It is also called the Park 51project in Lower Manhattan and, let me repeat, it is not to be located at Ground Zero.
This initiative has had the strong support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg since its conception.
Moderate Muslims looking to blunt the siren song of Islamic radical jihad are among its primary founders and supporters. But they are not alone. A Presbyterian minister from Virginia is also a major backer as is the Inter-faith Alliance, an advocacy group based in Washington, DC. American and international groups whose goal it is to promote religious tolerance number among its supporters.
Liberal Jewish groups – like J Street – approve of the initiative. It’s unfortunate that the Anti-Defamation League, which has stood for religious tolerance since its inception, has taken another stance. Maybe it needs to take another look.
Trinity Church is close to Ground Zero. As far as I can tell, no one’s complained about it. That church, by the way, is foremost a house of worship. It is neither a community center nor a building designed to promote religious tolerance or interfaith dialog.
What's the problem?
Let’s get this straight once and for all. The Cordoba Initiative, or the Park51 Project in Lower Manhattan, is about constructing a community center two blocks from Ground Zero in place of a building long abandoned by the Burlington Coat Factory as described by Jacob Gershman in the Wall Street Journal. A community center and a mosque are not the same. Or even a building devoted to interfaith dialog with a prayer room, as Nicole Belle characterized the future building yesterday on Crooks and Liars. Perhaps Rachel Zoll, the AP reporter, who doesn't seem to have bothered to check out the Córdoba Initiative’s webpage very well could do a bit more research for her next story on this now controversial topic.
But especially the right wing bloggers who started the media storm in the first place should get off their soap boxes and do a lot more homework - first off, Cordoba House will not be built at Ground Zero and the founders and backers are not jihadists. Kuwaiti born Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a Sufi - about as far from militant Islam as one can get. Among the leaders are foremost moderate Malaysian Muslims with long established track records in the US.
But whether or not the center has a room or even a floor devoted to religious worship, Father Patrick Ryan a Fordham University professor of religion and society in Zoll’s interview with him on July 20, observed that between 40-50 Muslims “lost their lives at the World Trade Center” on 9/11 and asked “Why shouldn’t they have a mosque there?”
More likely right wing Republicans at it again
Meanwhile, the anti-Islamization rhetoric being spewed and pasted all over buses in cities like Detroit, Miami and in San Mateo County in California’s Bay Area by America’s political right wing, is most likely resurrected for partisan political purposes in an election year and designed to scare less savvy Americans into voting for the Republicans - based on dredging up George W. Bush’s alleged “war on terror” fear factor yet again.