A.R.T. 9/11: December 2010

Monday, December 6, 2010

Does Palestine Still Exist? Did it Ever?

by Matthew Carlos Vargas Stehney

Currently, Palestine is a figment of our imagination. While the Palestinian Authority government holds symbolic power over the West Bank, it operates at the discretion and pleasure of Israel and the United States. Without the blessing of these occupational regimes, there would not be a Palestine, let alone a Palestinian government. It exists because we think it exists, in one form or another, but it is far from being a self sustaining, independent entity that could exist whether the world liked it or not. Western governments have been hesitant to recognize an independent Palestinian state, but the international community as a whole generally supports such an idea. Unfortunately for the first-world Western powers, former client state and third-world countries are establishing their independence from the first-world West, often through instituting socialist programs and removing themselves from the influence of Western institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. One such country is Brazil. In recent years, under the post-modern Socialist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil has established one of the world’s fastest growing economies and has quickly paid off its debt to the IMF, to the chagrin of first-world West who would have liked to maintain their influence in the region by forcing Brazil and surrounding countries to remain in debt. With this new found independence, Brazil has been able to voice its opinion, even when it is in opposition to traditional powers, and people are actually listening. This past weekend, the Brazilian imagination took a step beyond ours when it declared its recognition for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders (when Israel occupied Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank). Because peace talks have stalled as a result of the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, one recourse that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has is to somehow get the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders; Brazil’s recognition is a major first step in the process. The occupation of Palestine has been a contentious issue for the international community, especially the Muslim world. It is cited by Islamic extremists as one of the major grievances against the West, and especially the United States. Israeli settlement construction in occupied territories, according to Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar of the Middle East research & Information Project, “were understood by most Palestinians as marking out territory that Israel sought to annex,” in the final settlement of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority during the 1990s at Oslo. The mutual distrust at Oslo prevented any substantial agreement from being met between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, resulting in the Second Intifada (uprising) in 2000. With no gains made in the peace process, Beinin and Hajjar say that “top officials of the PA [Palestinian Authority] now say that UN resolutions must form the basis of future final status talks.” This is why our imagination is so important, and why the recent move by Brazil is critical for such resolutions. If more regional powers adopt resolutions recognizing the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, the UN would have to stop dragging its feet and address this crisis head-on. As extremists call for war against Israel and its supporters, such a resolution could only help deter violence (though some extremists may just replace their antipathy toward the occupation to direct antipathy toward the existence of Israel, if they haven’t already), though reduced violence should not be the sole reason to support an independent Palestine. Developed and developing countries, with little historical interest in the Middle East, should follow Brazil and declare their support for human dignity and self determination in Palestine. As formerly oppressed, formerly colonized people begin to gain their own footing in a global market and political network, they must show their support for those who are still under colonial rule, and no colonial occupation is more thorough than that in the Palestinian territories.

Helen Zughaib- "Changing Perceptions"

by Chelsea Brown

Does the painting on the left look familiar?

If you’ve studied any amount of Western art history, it should. It’s reminiscent of a Picasso, but something isn’t quite right. What is different about this image? Arab American artist Helen Zughaib wants her viewers to think about this question. Zughaib is a Lebanese American who lived the first part of her life in the Middle East and Europe. She later came to the United States to study art. Zughaib completed many works before September 11, 2001, but it will be her work post 9/11 that will gain her the most notoriety.

The painting above is a part of a series called “Secrets under the Abaya” where she illustrated Middle Eastern women, all wearing Abayas. The style of painting, however, is what makes her paintings interesting. Picasso is a well known Modernist painter and is associated with the Western school of art, even though he himself was Spanish. Zughaib has appropriated very western ideas of art to portray Eastern subjects.

She chose women in Abayas for this series because of the reputation that Middle Eastern women, and especially Muslims, have in the United States. We as “Christian” Americans feel the need to save Muslim women because we don’t understand the religion or the meaning behind the veil. Americans see the cultural norm of wearing an Abaya or Hijab as demeaning to women, when in context, it’s the complete opposite. The Bush administration was well known for saying that Muslim women need to be “saved”. Author Lilia Abu-Lughod believes that the Bush administration used the “oppression” of Muslim women as one of the strong justifications for going to war in Afghanistan. Zughaib’s depiction of women wearing Abayas is the visualization of the complexities of wearing a veil in Muslim culture- it is a concept that non-Muslims, and especially Americans, do not understand completely.

Zughaib’s post 9/11 work is just as remarkable. In response to the terrorist attacks, Zughaib made a series of 2-d works that depicted Muslim scenes using stereotypically American colors and patterns. The geometric patterns she used can be interpreted as quilt pieces (a symbol of traditional Americana) or as Muslim tile pieces. The meaning is ambiguous. By blending cultural artistic practices and making them indistinct, she is bridging the gaps of Middle Eastern and American cultures. She herself is also portraying the meaning of her identity via painting. As a Lebanese American, she is caught between two cultures and is left to determine how to interpret both. This was especially a problem after 9/11, when many Americans were blaming the whole of the Arab and Muslim population for the terrorist attacks. The hyphenated identity, at least in this context, can leave immigrants, or descendants of immigrants, feeling alienated from the rest of the community.

Zughaib’s paintings are an interesting bridge between two cultures and they redefine what being an “American” means. Her skillful use of western painting methods with the depiction of Middle Eastern subjects leave much for the viewer to consider.

To see more of Helen Zughaib’s work, please check out her website.

Bibliography
Abu-Lughod, Lilia. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving." American Anthropologists (2002): 783. Web. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/22843884/Lila-Abu-Lughod-Do-Muslim-Women-Really-Need-Saving>.

Helen Zughaib. 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. <http://www.hzughaib.com/>.

One Man’s Divine Calling to Respond to 9/11 through Faith, Acceptance

By Ben Verdi, in response to http://www.pbs.org/itvs/caughtinthecrossfire/khader.html and http://www.curenyc.com/index.htm

Rev. Khader El-Yateem was born in the West Bank in 1968, and was raised a Christian. Now he sits on the board of an organization called “CURE: Community Understanding of Racial Equality” in Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife and four children, and makes his life as a Lutheran Reverend. While he is a happily married, devoted father, there is something special about this reverend that puts him in an unusually opportunistic position to be a community leader on multiple fronts.

That is, he is an Arab-American man who is also a Christian minister. A rather well-known one in fact, for he was the subject of a PBS documentary series called “Caught in the Crossfire” which profiled Arab-Americans in post-9/11 American society and gleaned from them testimonies and responses to the tragedy as raw and authentic as they are inspirational.

His is an unbelievable story. Born in the West Bank, he was captured at the age of 20, along with the rest of his family, by Israeli soldiers and tortured for almost two months. He eventually was released and almost immediately fell in love and got married to an Arab woman bound for America, leaving his home country and people to begin a new life in New York City, the bad taste of his past still in his mouth.

By September 11^th 2001, El-Yateem had earned his masters degree in Divinity and founded the Salam Arabic Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, New York. After 9/11, however, his role in the community became one he couldn’t possibly have anticipated, but one he couldn’t have been better prepared for. His church became an artistic response to 9/11 in some ways, as he personally helped counsel people of all faiths and backgrounds after the tragedy, as many Muslims as Chrisitians, as many people who’d lost someone in the collapse of the World Trade Center as people who had been attacked for the ways they looked and dressed in the time thereafter.

To use his own words, Yateem says: “I feel like God calls me to be here.” The “here” he refers to is New York City, and few who have benefitted from his counsel, his faith and his unending compassion for the community around him, would disagree.

It really does seem as though this perfectly-placed Arab-American’s response to 9/11, when considering the hard times he lived through as a young man on the West Bank, was engineered by a higher power.

His resolve and faith, tested and refined in the torture chambers of his homeland, his peaceful and accepting view toward all the people who have sought his help since 9/11, and the ways in which he still attempts to deconstruct religious, racial and cultural barriers by working for the CURE organization in Brooklyn highlight one of the most noble ways that any New Yorker, Arab-American, or any person for that matter, has responded to 9/11.

Amreeka: Making it Work in America

By Elle Mastenbrook

Amreeka (2009) is a film about a family that moves from Palestine to the United States, and it is an excellent film that depicts some of the struggles that immigrants from the Middle Eastern region of the world face when they enter the United States. It combines humor with a serious message about acceptance into American life, and overall it is very effective. The movie chronicles Muna and Fadi, a mother and son, and the experiences they have. Here is a brief summary:

The main character, Muna, is a single mother that received a work visa to work in the United States. With encouragement from her son Fadi, she decided to move to the United States. They lived with Muna’s sister upon their arrival. They came to the state of Illinois, which was a huge change from Palestine. Muna got a job at White Castle, but told her family she was working at the bank next door to it because she was too ashamed of her actual employment. Fadi, who was 16, enrolled in school, and had to deal with being the outsider. During the time period that the film is set in, the United States began its war with Iraq. This led to many problems for Fadi. Some of the students at his school were very openly racist, and he got called names and was bullied. Muna and Fadi eventually found their place in their new home, but it wasn’t without difficulty. They had to deal with having an Arab identity in a very patriotic American city, and it took them awhile to find their place. But with the support of their family, and kind strangers, they started to consider America, or in Arabic, Amreeka, to be their home.

This story was very interesting to me, because it was not shy about the racism towards Arabs that existed post-9/11, and at the beginning of the Iraq War. The director and writer, Cherien Dabis, used this film to show viewers the kind of discrimination that they can prevent. It destroyed the binary of the “Other”, and demonstrated that everyone should be treated equally, despite their background. Muna was a very kind woman, and was always trying to make people happy. She bonded with her coworkers at White Castle, which led to some very hilarious moments in the film. Despite her good intentions, she had to deal with ignorance towards her culture. In one part, as seen in the trailer, she was sitting down for an interview, and her interviewer asked her if she was from an Israeli country, and she replied that no, she was Arab. To this he replied, “Don’t blow the place up.” The assumption that all Arabs are terrorists was not uncommon when the film takes place, and there are many Americans today that still believe us.
What many Americans do not realize, however, is that many Arab and Muslim Americans were just as affected by September 11^th as non-Arab and Muslim Americans. They lost friends and family in the attacks, and were very upset by the acts of the terrorists. Robert Stam and Ella Shohat dealt the us/them binary, which came about after the attacks on 9/11. It established all Americans as “us” and all Arabs and Muslims as “them”, or the “Other.” In their preface of their book Flagging Patriotism they explain that not all Arabs are Muslim, and many of them are Christian or Jewish, just like “us.” They also talked about “the border between ‘us’ and ‘them’… is constantly shifting” (Preface xvii). Amreeka dealt with this border by developing the characters of Muna and Fadi in a very thoughtful way. Muna grew through her employment at White Castle, and learned not to be ashamed of certain aspects of her life. Fadi became stronger, and found his identify through standing up to his classmates that harassed him because of his Palestinian heritage. Cherien Dabis did a fantastic job in this movie dealing with the “Other”, and gave a heartwarming tale of overcoming hardships through perseverance, and familial support. This film is a must-see for anyone interested in modern immigration during the aftermath of September 11^th.

Check out the trailer below...

Doris Bittar- The Blending of Cultures

by Chelsea Brown

We as Americans are used to seeing the image of the American Flag everywhere. It is the ultimate sign of patriotism like any country’s flag. It is a symbol of pride and the American spirit. More recently, in modern and contemporary art, the symbol of the American flag has been co-opted to represent other things.

Abstract Expressionist painter Jasper Johns turned the image of the flag into a pop art icon, much akin to Andy Warhol’s silk screen prints of a Campbell’s Soup can. The appropriation of American symbolism has since been a topic of popular debate among artists and art historians alike.

A contemporary and rather controversial artist to do this is Lebanese American artist Doris Bittar. Bittar’s work is unique in that she frames the American flag and other Western icons from a distinctly Arab American standpoint. She weaves together American, European, and Middle Eastern cultures through her images. She uses Arab, and more specifically, Islamic imagery to frame and to comment upon American values and icons.

When asked about her work, Bittar states that she uses colonialism as one of her main influences. When the Gulf War happened in 1991, Bittar felt alienated. As an Arab American, she saw her friends and even family members have a very pro-American one sided view of the war. As an Arab American, she is caught between the two cultures. Since then, she has never gotten rid of the feeling of alienation. Her use of distinctly Islamic motifs on American imagery conveys this confliction within her identity. She sees the rest of the world, and specifically America, through the cultural lens of an Arab American. She is not unpatriotic, like the concept mentioned in Ella Shohat and Robert Stam’s book “Flagging Patriotism” defines, nor is she xenophobic. She is simply trying to navigate the idea of what it means to be an Arab American post-gulf war and 9/11.

Bittar’s work challenges the idea of what it means to be an American. The American icons of apple pie, baseball, and above all, the American flag are nostalgic symbols of Americanism. America no longer embodies the idea of “Main Street U.S.A.” with white heteronormative practices of the nuclear family and success through hard work (if it ever actually did). Times are changing- and the immigrant story is becoming more and more relevant. Hyphenated identities are becoming the norm and in turn, what it means to be an American. Bittar’s unique and witty combinations of American and Middle Eastern imagery are the visual interpretation of the hyphenated identity of an immigrant. As an immigrant who came to the U.S. when she was 6 years old, she is struggling to take hold of her Lebanese identity as well as the American one. She is visualizing the struggle between these two cultures in her paintings. Her story is just one out of the millions who have immigrated here.

Bittar’s work also recognizes the personal struggle of individuals, both here in the U.S. and abroad. Her series Coffee Stories, recognizes the story of the individual through the common, but personal practice of making coffee. Her work bridges the gap between the stories of the millions to the uniquely personal story of the individual. This is in addition to the bridging and combining of cultures through the combination of popular cultural imagery.

To see more of Doris Bittar’s work, check out her website and the Youtube video below.

Bibliography

Babaie, Sussan. "Visual Cultures of Islam." Ann Arbor. Winter 2008. Lecture.

"Doris Bittar." Welcome to DorisBittar.com. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. <http://www.dorisbittar.com/>.

Potts, Alex. "Modernism and Abstract Expressionism." HistArt 272. Ann Arbor. Fall 2009. Lecture.

Stam, Robert, and Ella Shohat. "Preface." Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.

They are Welcome in Whose Country?

by Matthew Carlos Vargas Stehney

“We have nothing against Muslims, they are welcome in our country, they are welcome to worship, we have freedom of religion, we have freedom of speech…they are welcome.”

-Reverend Terry Jones on why he is going to burn the Qur’an.

Recently, a crazy person hijacked the media spotlight and directed it to his small church in Florida, whose congregation was planning to have a Qur’an burning celebration on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The Reverend Terry Jones and the members of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL felt that burning the most sacred book of the Muslim faith would be a statement against Terrorism. What many have overlooked is that, through the above quote, Reverend Jones not only brings into question the legitimacy of burning the Muslim holy book, but also brings into question American subjectivity and citizenship. Unfortunately for many Muslim Americans, the 9/11 attacks further removed them from the realm of the American subject. Muslim and Arab Americans have been essentialized as inherently outside the boundaries of what is American. However, a question arises from quotes such as this: when does ‘their’ become ‘our?’ If a Muslim becomes an American citizen, or is born an American citizen, or whose grandparents were born American citizens, or is an American citizen who became Muslim; is what they do not then essentially American? Not according to the good reverend, or to a large number of Americans for that matter. They are welcome in our country. This implies that Islam cannot be American, and therefore its adherents are only visitors, or immigrants, but not Americans. Muslim and Arab Americans have had to remind the public that they are also Americans, and were also attacked on 9/11. According to scholars Anny Bakalian and Mehdi Bozorgmehr, following the 9/11 attacks, “Middle Eastern and Muslim American leaders…proactively claimed the rightful place of their constituents in American Society,” and advocated for American Muslims and Arabs from a civil rights platform. This platform is inherently American, operating from within American political and social framework to declare rights as Americans. To these leaders, this is not a conflict between American interests and their own, it is a declaration of rights as American subjects. Bakalian and Bozormehr also cite a post 9/11 study where Americans who displayed the American flag were polled on their reasons for doing so. While various reason for displaying the flag were given, “the authors [of the poll] found a positive correlation between displaying flags and having negative stereotypes of Arabs…some even saying ‘I would like to exclude Arabs from my country,’” despite the fact that many Arabs and Muslims were displaying the same flag at the same time. Is it not their country too? Doesn’t an Arab or Muslim American citizen have just as much a right to say they don’t want someone in their country (the US, if you have yet to catch on)? That is the essential debate prompted by the opening quote of this post. It is impossible to say that Muslims are one way while Americans are another, if you are including Muslims who are also Americans in your statement; it’s a logical fallacy. What Reverend Jones et al fails to realize is that if a Muslim American prays five times a day, then praying five times a day is an American practice; if a Muslim American goes on Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, then going on Hajj is an American practice. Of course, not everyone’s Americanness can be questioned, a white Christian citizen could never be excluded from American subjectivity, regardless of when their family came to this country, or what they did to it. Would Terry Nichols or Timothy McVey ever cause Christianity or whiteness to be cast from what is essentially American? While many would like to believe that whiteness and Christianity are the foundation of American subjectivity, *cough – Tea Party – cough* no American citizen has the right to declare dominion over what is considered American, over the interests of other American citizens. That is the imaginary beauty of the American experiment: equal citizenship under the law. Unfortunately, the American subject has been racialized or essentialized at every point in its history, to the exclusion of others, despite the fact that the rhetoric of American ethics and morals contradicts these exclusionary practices. Will the “melting pot” or “mixed salad” ever actually describe America?

Healing Through Music

By Elle Mastenbrook, in response to http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/arts/drawing-a-rap-refrain-from-a-un-resolution.html

There are many ways that Arabs and Muslims have dealt with the aftermath of September 11^th, and one of the most entertaining is through music. Iron Sheik is a Palestinian rap artist who uses his music to make political statements on various problems he sees in modern society. He has rapped about most everything, from getting searched at the airport to the quest for oil, and he even has a song called “Conversation with Edward Said.” Edward Said is a famous scholar, best known for his work titled Orientalism, which was revolutionary in depicting the way Western culture perceives Middle Eastern culture. In Orientalism he criticized how definitions of the Orient created a binary between Western and Eastern culture. “Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient- dealing with by making statements about it, authorizing views of it… in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating… and having authority of the Orient” (Said 69). Here he is stating that by labeling and critiquing the Orient, Western powers are establishing an authority over the region, therefore gaining all the power. Iron Sheik responded to Said’s ideas, and applied it to the occupation in Palestine. In his song “Conversation with Edward Said” he intermingles quotes of Said’s with his own lyrics, and makes a very powerful song. He slams the United States’ support of Israel, and criticizes their lack of help towards all of the Palestinian grievances.

Iron Sheik’s real name is Will Youmans, and he just so happens to be a graduate of the University of Michigan, and is currently working on his PhD there. He also received his law degree from the University of California at Berkley. He was born in Detroit, and has made quite the name for himself not only as a rapper, but a scholar as well. He has performed all over the world, and has had featured in many prominent news outlets, including the New York Times. In a review of one of his performances, author Danny Hakim wrote:

“And then Mr. Youmans began a set that substituted political statements for the four-letter words of other raps. He extolled the festivalgoers to get out of the bleachers and crowd the stage. He invited their reactions to various hot buttons, asking, ''Who here likes Fox News?'' and jabbing with banter like: ''The next song is about George W. It's called 'Low Expectations.'” (NY Times 07/08/2004). He is very liberal, which can be seen through his lyrics, and unlike a lot of other rappers, he has extensive knowledge to back up what he talks about. In this video clip, it shows Will Youmans on a news program and he raps about the violence and displacement that is taking place in Palestine:

As you can see, he is very knowledgeable about what is happening abroad, and he is using his music to get the word out to a broader audience.

All in all, the Iron Sheik has a good message for those who will listen. He wants peace for the Middle East, particularly Palestine, and his awareness of the issues make his arguments even more valid. And he is a Michigan Wolverine, so he obviously is very intelligent. Music is a great outlet for people dealing with grievances, and maybe if more Arab or Muslim Americans used this medium then their injustices could be addressed. The more the word gets out there, the more the Western/Eastern binary of us versus them can be disintegrated. September 11^th was a horrific tragedy, but why doesn’t the United States address the tragedies they are imposing on Palestine. The Iron Sheik wants to get the message out, and chose rap as his way to this. What will you do to make more people more aware of the problems that you see in the world? Just something to think about…

Caught Between Worlds: An Arab-American Journalist Wonders Who “We” Are

by Ben Verdi, in response to http://www.raghidadergham.com/archive/arnewsweek10_15_01.html

In the weeks and months after 9/11 journalists were still scrambling to pick up the pieces of what happened on that disastrous day, how to adequately cover and investigate the tragedy, and how to handle all of this challenging work while still adhering to the ethical and moral principles of journalism. For one Arab-American journalist in particular—Raghida Dergham—the task of balancing hard journalism with one’s own take on the 9/11 tragedy, on the world it happened to, and the response needed to help make amends for it, was as difficult as anything she’d ever faced.

In an article she wrote and published in Newsweek International on October 15^th, 2001, Dergham decided to start at square one in order to clarify her view of 9/11, and any cultural responses to it, as accurately as she could. She was born in Lebanon but had lived in New York City for most of her life. She’d long been utilized by her employers, newspapers, television shows, online news services, as a liaison between the Arab world and culture she inherited at birth, and the American way of life and perspective she helped inform every day as a journalist. That said, after 9/11, she felt as though the media was taking some disturbing turns for the worst in terms of the ways in which the “Arab world” and Arabs in general were being portrayed and simplified for an impatient and, she thought, vengeful American audience.

Essentially, her 9/11 response piece detailed the many ways in which she felt the increased visibility of Arabs on the American news was being billed as something healthy and constructive, but felt more like a way of helping Americans learn about their newest “enemy.” It is interesting to note the keen observation and near prophecy of her words, as this same issue of how negatively Arabs are portrayed in the media in the wake of 9/11 rages today in ways that took most years to recognize, and empathize with. For Dergham, even a month after 9/11, she felt this kind of mistreatment by the American media was something of a foregone conclusion. Her informed, journalist’s response to 9/11 as an Arab-American was one more of helplessness than of anger or mistreatment.

She writes in this same piece of how proud she was to see a taxi driver shortly after 9/11 still brave enough to have verses from the Koran hanging from his rear-view mirror. She also comments on the changes she notices to her daughter’s nightly prayers following 9/11. Upon overhearing her daughter pray, requesting: “God, please capture them and bring them to justice so we can have a normal life again,” Dergham wondered who her daughter thought “them” and “we” were exactly. More somberly, she wondered what informed her daughter’s understanding of “them” and “we.”

Still, despite the relatively helpless and directionless feeling Dergham was left with after 9/11, she responded to the tragedy by doing what it is she has always done best. She embraced her role as a liaison between American culture and the Arab world, because, for better or worse, her unique role and opportunity to create appropriate responses and cross-cultural discourses in the media is more important now than ever.

She concludes her piece by addressing her American audience directly, noting that all Arabs do not hate Americans, and the media should not propagate this myth, nor should the American people respond to 9/11 as though it’s true. Then she addresses her Arab followers by saying ominously that “Americans do not know you.” They don’t know how similar your culture is to theirs, nor do they know how to solve the problems stemming from 9/11 that allow the two worlds to talk past each other, and remain ignorant to one another’s true characteristics. She ends on this somber note but there is still a note of hopefulness in her response to the post-9/11 media.

One can imagine her writing that phrase: “Americans do not know you” and finishing her article with her eyes fixed downward at the sad truth before her. Yet, as she instructs both Arabs and Americans to do in response to 9/11, she probably lifted her head once more to the world she hopes to heal, to the cultures she hopes to re-unite, and kicked herself for not ending that sentence of hers with the word: “yet.”

Park51- An Artistic Response to 9/11

American Response to Park51 Design

by Chelsea Brown

Nothing has been the subject of such extreme controversy like the Park51 Community Center, soon to be located in lower Manhattan in New York City. Also known to the public as the “9/11 Mosque”, it will take over a small part of Manhattan that was destroyed on September 11, 2001. Those who oppose it believe it is in poor taste to put an Islamic Mosque “right next” to a spot that caused so much trauma to the American people. These are the same people who believe that Islam and its followers, a usually very peaceful and understanding faith, were solely to blame for the atrocities that day.

Many Americans, and especially those who call themselves Christian, see Islam and the Middle East as binary oppositions. Even though both faiths share many of the same values, they are seen as binary opposites to each other. This is why Park51 has been the subject of a large controversy. The reasoning behind this fear is called “orientalism”, a term coined by theorist Edward Said. The Middle East and Asia, at least to Europeans and Americans, has always been shrouded in mystery. Due to its geographical location and difference in culture, many westerners just assume that the “East” is just farther behind in culture and technological advances. The East, for many people, will always be a dark land of snake charmers and exotic women. This sort of ignorance is what leads people to fear Islam and those from the Middle East, and now, the Park51 Community Center.

Park51 will not only serve as a religious center for Muslims, but as a content and culture rich community center. It will have language courses, an indoor pool, and even a fitness center. The worship center will be a small part of what it has to offer to the surrounding community, yet people see it as an imposing Mosque moving in on the sanctity of Ground Zero. A large reason that certain people oppose the project is that its design draws influence from traditional Islamic Architecture. It is not distinctly Islamic in any particular way, but its slight influences are rather obvious. SOMA Architects, the consultant firm that drew up initial sketches, designed a building that was light and airy- a building that would feature large open windows and bright white marble or stone on the exterior. The structure is not imposing, but a bright symbol of hope for the community.

The exterior is reminiscent of a Mashrabiya, or a stone-cut sunscreen seen in many examples of Mughal architecture (16^th- 19^th Century). The asymmetrical and jagged star cutouts are reminiscent of the eight pointed star seen in many examples of Islamic architecture and art throughout the Middle East. Islamic art cannot have human representation in any of its forms, so often times, artists and architects would resort to geometric designs and flowers. This star in particular is sometimes known as a “Seal of the Prophets” and is a very popular symbol for Muslims around the world. Park51’s screen cut design is reminiscent of this symbol, but it is not actually located anywhere on the design. Some people have also said the star cutouts also look like the Jewish Star of David and similar Christian star symbols seen in the Bible. The pattern is generic and sporadic; one cannot designate the actual origin of the design.

The images of the proposed design of Park51 have popped up all over the internet and news. People have seen its design and have called it inherently Islamic in nature, which wasn’t the goal of the architects. The goals of Park51 are community-oriented. The cross-cultural design of the structure is to promote understanding and a sense of unity between the three major religions in America. The building will not only bring about cultural and community unification, but it will revitalize a part of Manhattan that is lying dormant and unused. Park51 will revitalize the community, both in faith and in practice.

To keep up on news concerning Park51, please visit their blog.

Bibliography
Babaie, Sussan. "Visual Cultures of Islam." Mughal Architecture. Ann Arbor. Winter 2008. Lecture.

Bloom, Jonathan, and Sheila Blair. Islamic Arts. London: Phaidon, 1997. Print.

Park51. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. <http://blog.park51.org/>.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1979. Print.

Park51- An Artistic Response to 9/11

Part 3- Ground Zero Mosque: An Artistic Response to an American Tragedy

By Ben Verdi

               Much has been said, written, screamed by protesters for and against the construction of the Park51 Cultural Center (formerly known as the Cordoba House) that is planning on opening its doors in roughly four years in downtown Manhattan. The center is controversial because of the ways in which people believe it is infringing on “hallowed ground” (Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood) and is in some ways seen as a sign of more Muslim aggression against the hearts and minds of New Yorkers, and all Americans who are still grieving over the tragedy of September 11^th, 2001.

                But, while controversy has stirred debates and fueled passions of people from the media to the middle of lower Manhattan’s streets, one key part of this cultural center (which it seems we’ve all agreed to ignorantly call a Mosque) is being overlooked. That is the fact that Park51 will have within its walls one of the first true memorials to the 9/11 tragedy. Now, some may call this a political decision in order to win the support—or at least reduce the protests—of people who think this cultural center is offensive to their American patriotism and to a ground that looks as destroyed and awful as it does “because of Islam.” Some may even go as far as to say this small memorial within the $100 million dollar walls of the center is actually a sign of how little Muslims care about the grieving process that many are still clearly going through post-9/11. But what few seem to be thinking about is the ways in which this 9/11 memorial, and this cultural center in general, might be re-interpreted as incredibly soulful, artistic and (ironically) American responses to such a horrible national tragedy.

             For instance, the claim that the Park51 Center is somewhat of a slap in the face to the people who suffered on 9/11 is quickly undone when we consider how many Muslims were also killed on September 11^th, 2001, innocent victims murdered as painfully and senselessly as any white, black, Jewish or Christian person was that day. Also, beneath the not-so-veiled bigotries of those who oppose the construction of the center lies a unique opportunity to see this Cultural Center as an amazing and artistic step forward for Americans going through that grieving process they claim is still needed in the wake of the tragedy.

            Think about it, although the project is costly, and will produce a beautiful, state-of-the-art gym, restaurant, pool and theater, Park51’s construction could almost be read as a humble step towards reconciliation, a sign that sensible, American Muslims want closure after 9/11 as well, and want to revitalize a community, a faith and an aspect of American culture, (that aspect being unity) that was so devastated by people who claimed to believe the same things they do.

Thus, the center’s proposed 9/11 memorial, a project for which Park51 is actually still seeking local artists, is not only going to help reconcile still-grieving New Yorkers with the peace of mind they desire, but will also serve as an artistic means of re-including Muslims under the umbrella identity of “American."
And in about four years the people of downtown Manhattan will see that the Park51 Cultural Center not only houses a memorial to a tragedy that caused more pain than any in the history of America, but, shining, brilliant (and eco-friendly), the building itself is a bit of an American Muslim response to 9/11 that is as classically American as it is peacefully Muslim.
We cannot change the past, so let’s move on together, and progressively help one another create beauty and hope and rejuvenation once more in the area of our country that we all agree needs it most.

Park51- An Artistic Response to 9/11

Part 2- Revamping Ground Zero to Spread Awareness

By Elle Mastenbrook

The controversy over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero has been widely publicized, and there are many different opinions surrounding the construction of it. The developer, Sharif el-Gamal, worked with SOMA Architects to come up with the creation of design. According to the project’s website, www.park51.org, their vision is as follows:

“Park51 is a center created to serve the local community through recreational and cultural activities and social programs and to integrate the Muslim-American identity into the fabric of the United States. We are guided by Muslim values, including understanding, mutual respect, service, transparency, peace, harmony, education, health, equality of women, excellence and sensitivity to our environmental impact. Our goal is a self-sustaining, international-standard model.”

This post is created to discuss beneficial aspects of the proposed mosque, and how it is not just an Islamic Center, but also a structure that could be advantageous to all citizens of New York City. According to the website, the facility is intended to be a community center, and is planned to include: recreation spaces, an auditorium, a restaurant and culinary school, cultural amenities, education programs, a library, childcare services, a prayer space open to all members of the New York community, and a September 11^th memorial space. What is interesting is that the website does not specifically identify the prayer space, named the Cordoba House, as a mosque. Yet the term mosque is what is highlighted in many of the media reports on this structure. They do acknowledge that the Cordoba House will be developed under the leadership of Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf, but other than that there is a noticeable lack of any religious connotations the religious space in the community center has.

New York City does not need another gymnasium or restaurant, but Park 51 is going to bring more than that. It is going to be a tranquil space that promotes peace. It is not intended for pushing Islam on its patrons. It is meant as a place of reflection, and is a tribute to the attacks on September 11^th. There is still a large amount of public dissent towards the project. This dissent comes from an ignorance of Islam, and an ignorance of what the proposed project would actually bring to New York City. The prayer space is open to all different religious faiths, so it is not strictly restricted to Islam. Unfortunately, due to the essentialist tendencies of the people in the United States, many citizens have associated Islam with terrorism, therefore causing an uproar at the thought of creating and Islamic Center next to Ground Zero. Essentialism is the act of stereotyping a group. For example, there is a stereotype that all Arabs are violent terrorists. Mahmood Mamdani relates essentialism to the phrase “culture talk.” Culture Talk is the assumption that every culture has a substantial essence that defines it, and this essence reflects on the politics of that particular group (Mamdani 17). He specifies this definition by relating it to Muslims, and how Culture Talk for this group focuses on the early history of Muslims, and presently they have no grounds in culture so they are bad (Mamdani 18). This ignorance is perpetuated in wide stream thought, and is why many Americans see the creation of the Park 51 Community Center as an attack on those who died in September 11^th.

The creators of the center primarily just want to create a space that would benefit all of New York. The space is not centered on religion, though part of it, the Cordoba House, is. They want the country to see that Muslim-Americans are just like everyone else, which they are. If this community center is successfully erected I think it would open up the world to how peaceful Islam really is. It would also spark constructive conversations around the country about what Islam consists of, and I think this would really help bring closure to the negative feelings that many people have towards the Muslim terrorists that attacked New York City on September 11^th.