A great deal has been made recently about a recent modest proposal to build, next to the planned Ground-Zero Mosque, a center for Bi-Fidels, Trans-Fidels, Cross-Fidels, and other non-traditional Muslims. While the idea has considerable merit, it has, I believe, one glaring drawback: it threatens a certain Massad-ization of the Muslim viewpoint.
I believe that I can propose an alternate plan much more conducive to building bridges and healing the currently strained relations between the two great civilizations. What was the greatest good fortune ever to befall the Hebraic and Christian faiths? Surely there is nobody who will hesitate to aver that it was the advent of Higher Biblical Criticism. What greater gift could we give our Muslim brethren, what greater demonstration that we know that 9/11 was merely the work of a few crazed misfits, than an institute for historical and textual study of the Quran, right next to the site where Bin Laden's minions played into the clammy hands of Islamophobic bigots like Rush Limbaugh and Pam Geller?
Shall the scripture that is the basis for all scientific discoveries languish for lack of truly scientific study? Will we let our Mohammedan brethren base one of the world's great faiths on silly superstitions and outmoded notions of Divine revelation when a truly scientific foundation beckons? If Bin Laden's propensity to bomb an institution is the greatest recommendation one could make for establishing it, then surely everyone will agree that the Al-Wellhausen Institute for Higher Quran Study should be built even before all the funding is in place for the admirable Cordoba House project. And the BFTFCF community will just have to wait its turn.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad
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