Jodee Taylor: Good apples improve whole bushel

Jodee Taylor

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September 11, 2010

By Jodee Taylor, Features editor ---- The Record Eagle Sat Sep 11, 2010, 07:14 AM EDT

I don't mind anyone building an Islamic community center in Manhattan.

I don't mind that there will be a mosque within blocks of ground zero or anywhere else in the country, for that matter.

I don't equate all Muslims with the terrorists who flew planes into the World Trade Center any more than I equate all Christians with abortion-clinic bombers.

Still, I try to understand how the anti-mosque people feel and why they feel that way.

Is it narrow-mindedness? Fear? Bigotry? Ignorance? All of the above?

And why do people in other countries not react the way we do?

Muslims in Sydney, Nova Scotia, a town of about 25,000 people on Cape Breton on Canada's Atlantic coast, just bought a Catholic parish hall. They are going to convert it into a mosque.

"This is one of the greatest things I've heard so far," said Archbishop Vincent Waterman, who runs the town's African Orthodox Church, in a recent CBC story.

"As a prayer center, I welcome it. When you take roots in a community such as this, it shows that you're going to stay for a while. You're putting down roots."

The Muslims of Sydney, Nova Scotia, are being welcomed with open arms, embraced by the rest of the community, praised for taking over a parish hall that no longer needed was because the Catholic population is dwindling.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, a mosque under construction in Murfreesboro burned in late August. It was arson, federal investigators said.

Which leads me to believe it's not the site in Manhattan — and its proximity to ground zero — that bothers people. It's Islam.

I think the anti-Islam feelings mostly are fueled by misinformation. There's also a touch of misunderstanding and selective hearing.

If you are already anti-Islam, it's easy to find information to support your beliefs, such as Muslims squelching women's freedoms or educating children from birth on how to build a bomb.

These stories very well may be true — but they represent such a tiny percentage of Muslims they are hardly worth talking about.

It would be like equating all Christians with a sect of people who take multiple wives, or thinking of all priests as child molesters.

It's the one-bad-apple cliché taken to extremes. And, when you think of it, one bad apple does NOT spoil the whole bushel. You may get a slight "ewww" feeling if you find a mushy apple, but it's easy enough to toss it aside and enjoy a good apple.

There's enough good in this world that's easy to embrace. Find it and celebrate it. An Islamic community center in Manhattan may end up being the nicest building in a neighborhood featuring strip joints and souvenir stands. A mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., could help the town's economy by bringing in more families who will contribute to the city's tax base.

Abdul Atiyah, a doctor and a Muslim in Sydney, Nova Scotia, a city dependent on a fading fishing industry and a fickle tourism economy, sees his town's new mosque that way.

"(It) has become a great retention tool for the professionals because a lot of the people who come here leave because of lack of support, leave because there is no place for the children to be exposed to their culture," Atiyah said.

It's a good apple improving the whole bushel.

Jodee Taylor can be reached at jtaylor@record-eagle.com.