A group of
progressive Muslim-Americans plans to build an Islamic community center two and
a half blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan. They have had a mosque in
the same neighborhood for many years. There’s another mosque two blocks away
from the site. City officials support the project. Muslims have been praying at
the Pentagon, the other building hit on Sept. 11, for many years.
In short,
there is no good reason that the Cordoba House project should have been a major
national news story, let alone controversy. And yet it has become just that,
dominating the political conversation for weeks and prompting such a backlash
that, according to a new poll, nearly 7 in 10 Americans now say they oppose the
project. How did the Cordoba House become so toxic, so fast?
In a story
last week, the New York Times, which framed the project in a largely positive,
noncontroversial light last December, argued that it was cursed from the start
by “public relations missteps.” But this isn’t accurate. To a remarkable
extent, a Salon review of the origins of the story found, the controversy was
kicked up and driven by Pamela Geller, a right-wing, viciously anti-Muslim,
conspiracy-mongering blogger, whose sinister portrayal of the project was
embraced by Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post.
