News of a proposed Islamic complex in San Martin has fueled a
flurry of letters to the Times both in support of the project and
against it, suggesting there are some strong feelings still
lingering in the South County area nearly six years after 9/11.
Morgan Hill – News of a proposed Islamic complex in San Martin has fueled a flurry of letters to the Times both in support of the project and against it, suggesting there are some strong feelings still lingering in the South County area nearly six years after 9/11.
Immediately after the terrorist action that killed more than 2,000 people, South County religious leaders and members of several congregations gathered together at St. Catherine Church in Morgan Hill to talk about tolerance and deterring racism.
The author of a recent letter to the Times, Morgan Hill resident Diane Dawson, said in her opinion, racism is rampant, but that is “OK.”
“Everybody is a racist against other countries, other cultures they don’t know,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s simply identifying with your culture.”
The South Valley Islamic Community hopes the project will involve other faiths and reaches out to other Christian and Jewish organizations in the area.
The Islamic organization, founded in 1999, has approximately 75 families registered as members, but the proposed complex may attract more of the estimated 300 Muslim families in and around Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Hollister. At build-out the project would include an auditorium and conference center, convalescent home and funeral facility on the 16-acre site in San Martin, but the initial phase of the project would be less elaborate.
The initial phase, which could be under construction by next year, is projected to costs $6 million, with the entire complex likely totaling approximately $35 million.
The Cordoba Center draws its inspiration from the ancient Spanish city of Cordoba, the capital of the Muslim Caliphate and the center of the Islamic empire a thousand years ago.
Morgan Hill resident Steve Harkness said he was moved to write a letter to the editor about the issue for several reasons, one being the fact that he has had coworkers off and on over the years who are Muslims.
“These people are already our neighbors, and they are entitled to the same chance to celebrate their religion as anyone else,” he said. “After 9/11, some people have become so afraid that they have painted an entire religion with one brush, and that’s not fair.”
Nancie Barker, who also wrote a letter to the editor, said all South County residents should be concerned about whether building the center is an appropriate use of land and that the plans go through the proper regulatory process.
“Just like any other organization, that’s what people should be looking at,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned, people are jumping to conclusions that because of 9/11, this religion is bad. But they are a peace-loving people. You can have splinter groups from every religion that break off and become a horror story … Basically, Islam is a very, very good peaceful religion. They take care of their people, they tithe.”
Dawson said those of the Islamic faith in America need to show their outrage at the actions of others.
“We need to see American Muslims standing up and yelling real loud, we need to see them lined up on the side of America,” she said. “If you are good, loving religious Muslims, I expect you to be up in arms and not supporting any kind of terrorism anywhere in the world … You need to put your money where your mouth is, put everything there, because radicals are working in the name of your religion.”
AshRaf Madraswala, a Muslim who belongs to a mosque in San Jose, said that before judgments are made in general about religions, and specifically about the project in San Martin, that people need to get to know the individuals involved.
“People who think they have ideas about other religions, they need to see with their own eyes, meet the people, find out what they do, rather than just listening to media propaganda,” he said. “The problem is people don’t take the time to understand that Islam is about peace and harmony, not about violence. Islam is not a cult. We welcome other religions to our mosque, we have a good relationship with our neighboring community.”
The South County controversy is a global one, with cities such as Cologne, Germany, experiencing protests and an outbreak of religious bigotry with the proposal to build a mosque in the city. In Britain, several arrests of prominent Muslim citizens charged with terrorist acts have created an uproar.
