Sunday musings.

The recent news about the mosque and Islamic cultural centre being built two blocks down from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan is, no doubt, old news to almost everyone. This past week, I had a chance to discuss it with some of my older students, who were torn on the issue. One student was quite firm in the belief that, since America has freedom of religion, the mosque should absolutely be allowed to be built. The other was not quite so sure - do they have to construct the mosque so close to Ground Zero? Had they even considered the feelings of the families of those who lost their relatives in the attacks? Of course Al-Qaeda and Islam are not equatable by a long shot but, my student pointed out, no matter how many times we say that, they still remain tied together in the minds of the people. Surely there must be another site, perhaps further away, where the centre and the mosque can be built.

Let me be clear: I myself think that the whole issue is ridiculous and of course they should be allowed to build the mosque wherever they please - the double-standard, Islamophobic reactions to the whole affair are staggering and extremely disappointing. However, my student brought up something that he thought was similar about Japan: the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo.




The Yasukuni shrine enshrines the souls of Japanese soldiers and civilians who lost their lives in battle in service of the emperor, from the Boshin War in 1867 to World War II in 1945. After 1945, religion and the state were separated, and the shrine became something purely religious, but it is still a sore point for many non-Japanese people. The shrine basically absolves the spirits of all those enshrined there of any earthly errors, meaning that soldiers who massacred Chinese and Koreans and WWII war criminals become part of the kami (or spirits) alongside the nurses and even children who were killed in Okinawan bombings. There are actually a few Korean and Taiwanese people enshrined there, as Korea and Taiwan were both, at one time, colonies of Japan, and so they did die in service of the emperor (willingly or forced is not an issue). Families of the Korean and Taiwanese deceased have actually requested that the names of their relatives be taken off the shrine, because it's against their own religious values, but apparently that's impossible now that the souls of the dead have merged with the other kami.

There are several memorials, too: one to the women who had to raise their children alone, without their husbands, several to the various animals involved in the wars (carrier pigeons, dogs, and horses), one to those who died of hunger or thirst in battle, one to kamikaze pilots, and one to an Indian judge who was the lone member of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East's trials of Japanese war crimes committed during World War II to find all the defendants not guilty.

It was the only place to which the Emperor bowed.

But it's a sore point for a lot of people, which leads up to my student asking me, quite seriously, if the people who want to build the mosque near Ground Zero ever considered anyone's feelings about it before they went ahead with the planning. Which to me was surprising and touching - I know that it may sound trite, and that a lot of what goes into the arguments against this mosque are emotional appeals, but somehow this is different. In this society, one does almost everything while being acutely conscious of the feelings of the people around you: so that no offense is given, yes, but also so that the people around you can be happy, and you expect them to do the same for you. It's just a given that you think about the effects of your actions before you act. I wish I could say the same thing about Canada, I really do - we're very polite, and we do consider the feelings of other people when it's convenient for us, when we want other people to look on us favourably... but not to the extent that they do it here. Of course, not everyone is genuine while they're at it, but they're in the minority. There's an awful lot of respect going on around here, let me just say.