Why Not a Convent at Auschwitz? A response to “A Mosque Near Ground Zero”

by russellpearce
Published on August 19, 2010 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

I want to follow up on Perry’s post and explain why the debate over the Islamic Center at Ground Zero has changed my view of the Convent at Auschwitz. I use prejudice rather than offense as the starting point. It would be bigoted to oppose a Convent because it’s Christian or a Mosque because it’s Muslim. So why oppose the Islamic Center at Ground Zero or a convent at Auschwitz? What justifies the discriminatory treatment? Opponents of the Islamic Center claim that it insults the victims of 9/11 because the perpetrators of 9/11 were Muslim. Like many Jews, I opposed the convent at Auschwitz. I felt that it insulted the victims of the Holocaust because the perpetrators of the Holocaust were for the most part Christians and the victims were for the most part (but not exclusively) Jews. I did not parse the story as finely as Perry and I believe that like many Jews I opposed the Convent without knowing of the specific allegations of anti-Semitism associated with some of its proponents. But assuming as I do that the Carmelite nuns were not acting out of anti-semitism, I realize now that I was wrong. Fareed Zakaria changed my mind. In returning his Freedom Prize to the ADL, he asked, “is “bigotry . . . OK if people think they’re victims?” Zakaria’s answer – and mine — is no. And, of course, I had forgotten that was one of the lessons that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had taught us as well. He urged that despite the hundreds of years of murder and suffering at the hands of White people, Black people should not hate them. King explained, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

2 Responses to “Why Not a Convent at Auschwitz? A response to “A Mosque Near Ground Zero””

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  • Susan Stabile
    August 20, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    To ask the question posed by Fareed Zakaria is to answer it. Bigotry is never OK. Hatred is never OK. As a Christian, I understand Jesus’ command to love our enemies as a command that says that discriminatory and bigoted behavior toward another is never OK, regardless of what someone has done toward me. That is the right answer as a matter of theology and, as the King statement Russ quoted reminds us, it is also the right answer from a practical perspective. The way to end bigotry is not to continue to perpetrate it.

    I lost an uncle who was like a brother and a friend in the attack on the WTC and I watched the lives of others of my family members torn apart because of their experience of being in or near the towers when they were hit. I can still close my eyes and remember what I felt as I stood on line at the Armory to register my uncle among the missing persons because his own children were too young to do it. But what kind of Christian would I be if my response to that was hatred and bigotry toward not those who committed the acts? And worse, what kind of Christian would I be if I visited the sins of those who committed the act on everyone who shares their religion? To ask the question is to answer it.

  • Ellen Saideman
    September 11, 2010 at 9:56 pm

    I was very disturbed by the ADL’s opposition to the Islamic Cultural Center in downtown New York. Especially since the nuns built their convent elsewhere, I do not think that it is necessary to suggest that opponents were wrong to support the Cardoba Center. I do think there are some important differences in the two cases:
    (1). In the U.S., the issue is the treatment of Muslim minority by the largely Christian majority, whereas in Poland, the issue was the treatment of the Catholic convent by a largely Catholic nation. Regardless of the location of the convent, no one would question that Poland is a largely Catholic nation. In contrast, American Muslims may question their place in the U.S.A. in response to the advocacy against the Islamic Cultural Center.
    (2). Auschwitz today is a memorial to those who died there, and sadly, much of Jewish Poland was destroyed there and, while there are some Jews in Poland, it is very unlikely that Poland will ever again be home to millions of Jews. In contrast, while there will be a memorial at Ground Zero and thousands died there, the decision was made early on that new office buildings would be part of the site and that the area and the surrounding area would be a vibrant urban area. The Muslim Cultural Center is planned as part of a vibrant urban area.

    I think it is important to identify false analogies, and the analogy between the convent near Auschwitz and the Islamic Cultural Center is a false one. Similarly, the analogy between burning the Koran and building the Islamic Cultural Center is a false one. The first was a deliberate effort to insult a religion while the second was designed to provide a cultural center.

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