9/11 and Park 51

A discussion lesson about Sept. 11th and specifically the decision whether or not to build a Muslim community center/mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. While I usually avoid controversial topics like religion and terrorism, I did find that students were respectful and certainly interested in the topic.

Objectives

• To promote discussion among students
• To lead a fact-based discussion about a controversial issue: Sept 11 and the Ground Zero mosque

Materials

• Articles and Fact Sheet about Park 51

Warm Up

I started by asking them if they had heard of Park 51. No one had, so I explained that they were planning to build an Islamic cultural center with a mosque inside it near the site of Ground Zero. That rang a few bells. I then told them that some people in the US were upset about it and I asked the students if they had any idea why. A few answered that for some Americans Ground Zero represented a bad side of Islam and it was hard to imagine Muslims playing and praying near the site of this horrible attack. At this point we diverged into getting some of the facts right. They talked about how many people died, when the attacks happened, where else was attacked on 9/11. I let them do most of the talking here only stepping in when I felt they had gotten a fact wrong or were digressing into rumor and hearsay. I was careful to say things like, “Some people believe the fourth plane was going to the Capitol, but no one knows for sure,” instead of, “No, you’re wrong!”

Then I asked them why they thought the terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and if there was any reason for Muslims to hate or fear the West. I thought we might get into issues of colonization of the Middle East and poverty/globalization issues but we didn’t. Most people felt the terrorists were completely unjustified and I left it at that. Then we discussed what Muslims could do to fight against the image of Islam as a religion of terror and violence. Which brought us back to Park 51. I asked them if they thought the builders should build it there or what other alternatives there were. Most seemed to feel that Park 51 would show the world that Islam is a peaceful religion and bring religions closer together.

Readings

Finally, when the conversation died down, I handed out a bunch of articles about the community center (which I got from this lesson plan including the fact sheet. I printed out only a few copies of each article so that different students were reading different articles. Note: When I did this lesson, they read quite voraciously, but didn’t seem to be able to articulate as much as I had hoped they would. I noticed that most of them were copying words and sentences out of the text. Perhaps the level of reading was too high for them. I recommend editing the articles a bit for lower level students.

When they had finished reading, I asked them what they had learned, and what questions they still had, and I also gave them some targeted questions like, “Why are some Muslims against this project?” A few good questions like were generated like, “Who is this guy who is sponsoring it?” and “Why is the Anti-Defamation League against the project?”. That led to a bit more discussion.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad discussion and I think if the articles had been more at their level, or I had given them some comprehension questions, it might have gone a bit better. I was just happy no fights or arguments got started! One student did start to talk about how it was all done by the US and rumors about how none of the heads of companies or important people were at work that day in the World Trade Center (for which I can find no evidence). I did have to shut him down a bit brusquely, because honestly it’s just not polite and it hurts me to hear accusations like that against my government. Other than that, it was a respectful and interesting discussion.