Mosque debate diverts focus to religion instead of personal acts

So, they want to build a Muslim mosque and cultural center near the site of 9/11, the single most despicable act of terrorism in American history. "They" being, I assume, American Muslims. As opposed to, say, the Taliban. Or Osama bin Laden.

For weeks now, my e-mail is peppered with assorted photos and protests from all over the United States and particularly from the survivors and surviving family and friends of the innocents who died in that attack.

Like lots of folks, when news of the mosque first came down, my immediate instinctive reaction was to wince. It was at the very least in poor taste, I thought. Insensitive. Critics said it was far worse than that. An insult to the dead. Nobody said it out loud, but a kind of "sleeping with the enemy."

I've had some time to think since then. Let me begin with an "anti-illustration":

In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went to Columbine High School with guns and killed 12 students and one teacher. In the days that followed, a makeshift memorial was set up on school property with a marker for each of the 13 dead. Then, suddenly, there were two more markers. For Eric and Dylan. The murderers. Yep. Somebody snuck over and added those. There was uproar. The two usurping markers were taken down.

I get that. The most courteous thing I have to say to the folks who added the killers to the memorial is that theirs was an undiscerning and misguided compassion. Oh, I suppose that, somewhere inside of me, someday, I might find a kind of empathy for Eric and Dylan. Sort of a "something awful must have happened to you to make this kind of evil possible." But, to mourn them with the innocents? Never!

But this mosque is not that.

The board representing lower Manhattan voted 29-1 in favor of the mosque. One of the protesters at the meeting said, "This is humiliating that you would build a shrine to the very ideology that inspired the attacks on 9/11."

Actually, this protester has his finger right on the most pressing questions:

Did Islam "inspire" 9/11? Is Islam the villain here? And, more to the crux of it, is there an inherent pathology in the religion called Islam that is violent or must necessarily breed violence? Is Islam in its nature antagonistic to the American way? Or, let's reconstruct this question from the other side of the chasm: Is Jesus pro-American? Always?

Wow. I don't think you want to go there.

Early American Christian slave owners were fond of reading the New Testament book of Philemon to their slaves. The message, as read by slave owners, was something like, "See, God wants you to be a slave, so don't complain or run away if you want to get to heaven."

Ever read "The Sand Creek Massacre" (1977) by Stan Hoig? In 1864, Col. John Chivington, a Methodist preacher and opponent of slavery -- oh the irony! -- led 700-plus militia into a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho, killing and mutilating ... well, pretty much everybody except a few who got away. Two of the dead were women and children. Chief Black Kettle was flying an American flag over his tepee.

So, is it offensive to build Christian churches in Colorado or in the Deep South? Are you willing to say that "Christian ideology" inspired events such as these?

Of course you're not. This is not about Christianity. Or Islam. It's about evil. And evil dresses in religion garb ... often.

When the evil in the human heart crosses the path of religion -- any religion -- sometimes that evil is converted into light. But, too many other times across history, people suffer and bleed and die. While their assailants shout god-gibberish.

Muslims didn't plan and execute 9/11. Any more than Christians gave all those folks cyanide Kool-Aid in Guyana or shot that abortion doctor or sexually abused children in the Catholic Church. A bunch of sociopathic losers did these terrible things.

The mosque has the chance to sow the seeds of peace. To that end, I would hope its builders would do a few specific things.

See, I do have a post-9/11 criticism for the Muslim world. After the attack, I found the global and American Muslim leadership voices to be disappointingly quiet. I want the new visitor center/mosque to include some anteroom of recognition for the victims of 9/11. And, included there, an equivocal message of condemnation for the crime.

I want to hear them say that Allah condemns the evil of 9/11, and the actions of the men who lived -- and live -- in service to that evil.

Steven Kalas is a behavioral health consultant and counselor at Clear View Counseling Wellness Center in Las Vegas and the author of "Human Matters: Wise and Witty Counsel on Relationships, Parenting, Grief and Doing the Right Thing" (Stephens Press). His columns appear on Sundays. Contact him at skalas@reviewjournal.com.