From Cordoba House to...Green House?
The so-called Ground Zero Mosque—the Muslim community center that calls itself Park51—just launched its new blog moments ago.
Several hours ago, via twitter, Park51 announced that it “will be launching our beta blog and new branding today at 3pm est.” So for the last few hours, I kept wondering: exactly how will the GZM rebrand itself? What will the "new branding" look like? I thought, perhaps, that the blog might start off with an entry about the great mystic Sufi poet Rumi, or a short declarative piece that denounces Hamas as a terrorist organization, or maybe even with an announcement that it plans to move shop to build a more perfect bond with the community. There were a number of possibilities, remote and not, which were running through my head.
What I wasn't expecting, what I did not consider, was a blog whose eco-friendly, new agey references are more plentiful than its references to Islam.
Its rebranded "vision" is:
Park51 is a nonsectarian community, cultural and interfaith spiritual center along with a Muslim prayer area and a monument to honor all those we lost on 9/11. Park51 enriches lower Manhattan in body and spirit, with ecologically conscious design and operation. Our goals are pluralism, service, arts and culture, health and healing. A group of downtown Muslim-Americans envisioned a sanctuary where everyone is welcome to learn, experience the arts and culture and explore their relationship to faith. In the near future, Park51 will offer green, world-class recreational and educational facilities, and a friendly and accessible platform for conversations across our identities [my italics].
And here is its new "mission"--which includes still more amorous references to the environment.
Park51 celebrates arts, culture and ideas, bringing the best of the world to New York City, and New York City’s energy and diversity to the world. Park51 will become a model for future institutions, with its inclusive focus, sustainable design and dedication to social needs.
Park51 strives to:
Encourage dialogue, harmony and respect amongst all people, regardless of race, faith, gender or cultural background.
Establish a state-of-the-art eco-friendly facility that will serve as a model and inspiration for sustainable space in an urban context.
Cultivate neighborly relations amongst New Yorkers, fostering civic participation
Revive the historic Muslim tradition of education, engagement and service.
Promote Muslim-Americans identities, engaging New York’s many and diverse Muslim communities.
Build partnerships and relationships with institutions who share our values
Provide a wide array of social services for children, women & families, seniors immigrants, small business owners and high-need adult populations [my italics].
I'm no marketing expert, but don't you usually rebrand a company or an organization in order to change its image in a way that appeals to either different OR more people? If the point of Park51/GZM is to promote pluralism and cross-cultural understanding, shouldn't it have rebranded itself in a way that reached out to those who, in the eyes of the mosque's leaders, understand it least--to critics of the mosque, like harried conservatives and wary moderates? As it is, the rebranded Park51 continues to appeal to its fair-weather supporters (feel-good liberals taking a stand for the religion "of the other") while offering no quarter to its critics.
Park51/GZM, for instance, could have extended a hand to its critics by, at the very least, distancing itself from 9/11. It needn't be the "Ground Zero Mosque" if it were not for the fact that it keeps tying its mission to 9/11, as its new blog announces in the "About" section.
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Jul '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
to.....Dog House.
Jul '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
That sounds like it was written by an Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at some leafy little liberal-arts college. All it lacks is the part about a safe environment for our gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, queer and questioning students.
Amazing how these guys adapt themselves to our culture in the service of undermining it.
Honestly, I prefer their more genuine voice.
In particular that passage from the Hadiths about a Jew is hiding behind a rock and the rock is like, "Oh, Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me! Come and kill him!"
That one always cracks me up.
Good stuff.
Edited on Sep. 7 at 4:05pmMay '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
Actually, this isn't that surprising. The boosters of Park51 have displayed a terrible lack of understanding and/or desire to simply ignore the opinions of the majority of the nation.
Who is running the PR for them? If they weren't already employing some lefty non-muslim consultants, they probably are now. ("Say, we don't seem to be very popular. You know what's a good idea? Hire some PR experts who said our detractors are bigots!") Which would explain the sudden shift to environmental awareness.
And I can just imagine the meetings with these consultants:
"People think you're not sensitive. Now we know that's just because they're racists, but it wouldn't hurt to show them that you care. Announce that the Mosq--I mean community center will be environmentally friendly. Everyone knows that this is the best way to show people that you seriously care."
Sep '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
You hit the bullseye, Kenneth.
That honestly cracked me up. I was going to write something similar, but you beat me to it, curse you. The fact that they included every conceivable multicultural cliche except any reference to gays is quite telling, I think. If you are queer, Islam is not your friend and they are not even going to pretend to be.
Edited on Sep. 7 at 3:22pmMay '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
"A group of downtown Muslim-Americans envisioned a sanctuary where everyone is welcome to learn, experience the arts and culture and explore their relationship to faith."
No pictures of Muhammad of course!
Jul '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
We should be ashamed of ourselves. Jumpin' to conclusions...
It's not a mosque! The word mosque nowhere appears in their statement. Check it out for yourselves.
It's just a "...non-sectarian community, cultural and interfaith spiritual center...", folks.
It's not all, um, mosquey-like, with minarets and stuff and guys hollering all over the joint 5 times a day.
Sure, there's a "...Muslim prayer area..." but it's tucked away somewhere and it's gonna be really dinky compared to the gym and the jacuzzi and the interpretive jazz-dance studio and the aromatherapy spa and all that healing stuff.
And culture. It's gonna be chockablock with culture.
And here we were, jumping up and down and spewing hate and hyperventilating.
Boy, is my face red.
'Cause it's not a mosque!
It's uh, it's....it's like a YMCA!
Without the "C".
And the Village People.
Edited on Sep. 7 at 4:03pmMay '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
"If the point of Park51/GZM is to promote pluralism and cross-cultural understanding,"
Did you really believe that was the point?
Sep '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
Kenneth:
It's uh, it's....it's like a YMCA!
Without the "C".
And the Village People.
Damn, that is hilarious. I give up. You are funnier than I can ever hope to be.
Jul '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
David Parsons
Kenneth:
It's uh, it's....it's like a YMCA!
Without the "C".
And the Village People.
Damn, that is hilarious. I give up. You are funnier than I can ever hope to be. · Sep 7 at 5:06pm
You're a terrific audience! Really! Love ya!
And don't forget to tip that waitress...
Jul '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
Well, yeah, but you sort of knew that would be a non-starter. Muslims are the only segment of our society to get a free hall pass on homophobia, and they're gonna use it to the fullest.
Besides, the gay community can just go to Gutfeld's place across the street. :)
Aug '10
Re: From Cordoba House to...Green House?
A caller to Mike Gallagher had the perfect metaphor for the GZM: spitting in our faces and telling us it's raining. I would add: and laughing up their sleeves when we fall for it. "Spitting in our faces" is choosing the closest available site to Ground Zero to build an enormous monument to the religion in whose name the WTC was destroyed. "Telling us it's raining" is claiming that their goal is dialogue, harmony and respect. And "laughing up their sleeves" is what they must be doing when liberals' hearts flutter at their faux-progressive rhetoric.
Their ingenuousness was plausible on Day One of the controversy, but it doesn't survive the revelation that perhaps 200 million Americans find their project offensive. That they stubbornly cling to their plans (and that the Imam's wife brands opposition as "beyond Islamophobia") betrays dishonorable motives.
Most opponents express the mere wish that the mosque be built elsewhere. But the problem is no longer a faux-pas that can be taken back--that ended on Day Two--but the irrevocable contempt they've shown toward us. Any mosque built by these particular people should be protested--wherever they put it.