Transoceanic

When the anniversary of 9/11 passed without incident, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. It has been nine years since the terrorist attacks. Under normal circumstances, a reduction in the anger and fury would have been expected. However, this year a discussion on the construction of an Islamic center very close to the World Trade Center area, along with a pastor from Florida who wanted to proclaim Sept. 11 as Burn the Quran Day, indicates how American people are still confused about it. Most Americans still believe in the fallacy that the gang of 19 organizers of Sept. 11 represents the Islam religion and Muslims.

As a matter of fact, until this social debate, no American leader had differentiated between the radically religious terrorists and other believers of Islam, or [recognized] the fact that millions of Muslims live in America, or that Muslim Americans serve in the U.S. military and sacrifice their lives for this country when needed. So, at some point, it is good to start such a discussion.

Months ago, I was told that in America there was a new awareness of the Islam religion and against Muslims, which could lead to both positive and negative effects. If Pastor Terry Jones from Florida had burned the Quran as he had planned, this awareness would have proceeded in a negative way and would have given birth to indescribable suffering. For instance, Muslims could burn a person as retaliation. (Yes, I was quite scared of this possibility.)

Nothing bad happened. But that does not mean this will be so in the future.

First of all, we should ask how this nonsense of burning the Quran started. How could a pastor who belongs to a 30-member church affect the agenda of the world? The answer is pretty simple. To be heard, Pastor Terry Jones first used the social media called Twitter. I always say, even though I believe in their functionality, these social media platforms will cause more trouble over time.

American lawyers believe that the right to burn the Quran is equivalent to the right to construct an Islamic center. In other words, democratically, anyone can construct a mosque anywhere he wants, or burn a Quran, a Bible or a Torah.

However, there is no mention of common sense in the Constitution. Common sense is a phenomenon created by an individual’s own willpower. Of course, I am not putting the desire to construct [a mosque] near the twin towers in the same category as the action of burning a holy book in the middle of the street. But both situations can be resolved without leading to any more trouble by using common sense. As a result, that happened. Terry Jones, who had received death threats, acquiesced to the leaders who invited him to have common sense.

I hope the creators of the Islamic center are also open to postponing their plans. Even if I believe that the best answer to the Sept. 11 attacks would be interreligious common sense and constructing an Islamic center near the twin towers, sometimes your intention and the message you want to convey is limited by how it is perceived.

So, until the majority of Americans can accept this thought and learn not to connect the Islamic center with terrorism, it is best to suspend these plans. After all, an Islamic center which reminds people of painful memories would not be desired. Insisting on the right that the Constitution gives us is no different than obsessing over an ideology without knowing it.

Discretion means not following blindly. This is valid in every part of the life. In love, work, politics, art and even in religion, one should be flexible about the rules by discretion and should tolerate people who are too obsessed with these rules. That is the best part of being a human being.

However, people need prudent leaders to be prudent. Within the last week, the whole world witnessed a prudent president and CIA director in America.

Obama ended the debates by saying, “There is no us and them in America. We are all together.”*

*Editor’s Note: This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.