NYC Mosque Options

The 60 to 70 percent of Americans opposing the NYC Mosque have been called Islamophobics. However, 95% of those opposed to the mosque are okay with it being built anywhere else in NYC or in the country for that matter. There are about 2.8 million Muslims in the United States and approximately 2,000 mosques nationally. The United States has one of the highest ratios of mosques to Muslim populations outside of Islamic nations. In fact, American Muslims say the United States has given them the most religious freedom outside of Islamic dominated countries. So why are those who oppose the NYC Mosque, all of the sudden, called racists and bigots? This is once again a ploy initiated by news outlets to sensationalize the NYC mosque into a national news story.

What if Imam Abdul Feisal Rauf tried to build his massive mosque in another non-Muslim country such as Russia? Russia has a population of around 150 million people with about 10 million Muslims. Most of Russia’s Muslims live in the Southern most mountainous portion of the country were Islam is the prominent religion. Today, there are over 8000 mosques in Russia thus, their mosque to Muslim population ratio is better than the United States. However, this can be very misleading because most of the mosques are in areas were Islam is the dominate religion of choice. On the other hand, in the Moscow metropolitan area, there are only a handful of mosques for nearly 2 million Muslims. Most Muslims in Moscow carry a rug and set up their prayer exercises on sidewalks and in the streets.

In Russia, the Muslim population is exploding whereas; the rest of Russia’s ethnic group populations are contracting. Hence, by 2040, it is feasible that Muslims can be the leading ethnicity in Russia. Still, Muslim’s and Islam are treated as second class citizens in Russia. Part of the reason for this is because like many countries, Russia is at war with extreme Islamic terrorists. And unlike the United States, Russian leaders do not sugarcoat their feelings towards radical Islam. After the March 29th 2010 bombings, the Russian military used ruthless methods and killed scores of innocent Muslims to send a message. What’s worse, the Russian media is pretty much prohibited to report on the violence done towards Muslims. This allows Russian authorities and their military to do what ever is necessary to find and bring terrorists to justice – even at the expense of innocent civilian lives.

The United States has gotten a bad reputation for its treatment towards Muslims including enemy combatants. The global media has denounced Guantanamo, enhanced interrogation techniques, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now the NYC mosque protests. If the world thinks the United States is anti-Muslim and anti-Islam maybe they should ask Muslims to build their mosque somewhere else. Maybe they should see what the reaction would be to build their massive Islamic center mosque in any location in downtown Moscow. This will surely show Muslims and the rest of the world what intolerance and Islamophobia is really like.