believes in goin the last day shall be saved. it s a religion whose very name islam is from the word shalom which means peace. it s about establishing peace. we greeth other with peace be un you. which the ws do in greeting each other. it s a religion based upon peace. but have there been people who have you know, muslims who have expressed such sentiments? yes, they have. the 9/11 hijackers said they were acting in the name of islam. y. that is a trave ths at is a travesty. just as the inquisitors, you know, in spain were committing a travty against the teachings of jesus christ. we do have people in our faith stcommunity who have committed travesties against the teachings of islam. this is part of the of the of the war or the battle within
of what you re striving for? in some ways, yes. but in some ways, it s a silver lining here. how is it a silver lining? giving us an opportunity to speak out this subject in a manner that is sober. in a manner that is coherent. to look at what are all about as americans. to looat what it means to be muslim in america. to look at how we are going to to put back this genie of clash between the west and muslim world back into the bottle. there are plenty of muslims, as i ve been doing research, who have said is debate does not help us. this debate makes things more dangerous for us. s is debate hurts us, what s t happening at ground zero. there is no doubt that this has become such a situation. and i m deeply sensitive to that and very concerned about that. and, younow, had i known this would happen, we certainly would never have done this. you would never have picked that spot? we would we would not have done something that would create more divisiveness. then why is
peace between the west and the muslim world without the engagement of muslims and western muslims in particular. it sounds like you re saying we re going to force a peaceful option. so i ll leave it there for a moment. we ve got to take a short break. when we come back, we ll talk about that on the other side. back in a mome. i got into one of the best schools in the country! [ both screaming ] i got into one of the most expensive schools in the country! [ male announcer ] when stress gives you
on the website originally. is this a change in the face of the controversy? is this the negotiation? when i found the cordoba initiative after 9/11 in response to a perennial question was, how can we fix this relationship between the united states and the muslim world, i founded the cordoba initiative as a multifaith and a multinational initiative. it became very clear a very apparent that if we were going to do this, we have to have muslims and non-muslims in this country aninternationally cooperating together, addressing the fundamental causes that have caused this and are continuously fueling this but the controversy itself so the cordoba house isn t that causing to some degree an instability and a risk, a risk of safety? i mean, there s an address now that has become the flash point for a lot of aer. isn t that a risk to muslims and americans? there is a certain anger here, no doubt. but if you don t do this right, anger will explode in the muslim world.
congregation, has noticed how our the need for prayer space has expanded. he felt a commitment to do something for his community. and he found this particular building, and he negotiated it, acquired it and offered it for us to use and to establish a center that would be the space for a vision that i ve had for over a decade or 15, almost 20 years, which is to establish a space which embodies the fundamental beliefs that we have as jews, christians and muslims, which is to love our god and to love our neighbor. to build a space where we ll have a culture oworship. and at the same time, get to f know each other and to forge personal bonds because that s how a society, how a community is built. and how we can create somethingw that will snowball to push back agnst the radical discourse that has just hijacked the