Letter to the Islamic Cultrual Association

So, I just sent of my letter to the Islamic Cultural Association, to welcome them to the city. Here it is:

"Dear Islamic Cultural Association,

I am a young student from the Farmington Hills/West Bloomfield area. I am writing to say hello and welcome your organization to our neighborhood.  I’ve lived in here my entire life, I went to Eagle Elementary as a kid, I went to Warner Middle School, and now I’m studying at Harrison. When I first heard my old elementary school was going to be demolished, I was heartbroken. There were rumors going around suggesting a CVS or some other chain store would buy the property. Now, I might not have loved every minute of my schooling at Eagle, but having such a major part of my childhood be turned into some commercial money making scheme made me profoundly sad. It just didn’t seem fair that an integral part of our community could be wiped away so quickly.

Then I heard the Islamic Cultural Association was planning on moving in; I was thrilled. Instead of becoming a just another chain store, Eagle would become a gathering place for members of the community once again. The new Islamic center will increase our community's diversity while promoting cooperation and tolerance among our many different faiths. Even more than that, I’m hoping the new Islamic center will be able to teach people what Islam is really about, and dispel some misconceptions that some people hold about your religion. How, like virtually all religions, Islam is a religion of peace.

I wish you luck on renovating and setting up the new Islamic center, and I hope that once it is completed, I can visit and learn more about your religion.

Standing on the side of love,

Alec Ramsay-Smith, A friendly neighbor"

 I decided to send the letter directly to the ICA, instead of posting it in front of Eagle Elementary. I'm still not quite sure if I did the right thing, but I've thought it out pretty thoroughly.  If I were to post the sign outside eagle, most likely it would not be seen by a member of the ICA. Realistically, only a construction worker or someone from the neighborhood might see it. If a construction worker sees it, more likely than not it will just get thrown out or ignored. Now, if someone from the neighborhood sees it, there are only two possible outcomes: either the person will agree with it and just keep walking, or some bigot comes by and decides he needs to put up his own letter attacking the Islamic center. 

Now, the purpose of this project is to spread kindness.  I'm trying to make a religious group feel welcome in a city that has shown quite a bit of hatred towards them. I could publicly post the letter to try to provoke a fight, try to challenge bigotry in the neighborhood. But to what end? It won't persuade anyone to "stand on the side of love". The community hearing on the sale already called out some residents for their bigotry. All I'd do is inflame the small, xenophobic minority even more, making the environment more hostile for the very group I sought to welcome. All of it, really, just to satisfy my own ego. Now, if there are open protests to stop the sale, I'll be the first one out for the counter protest. But with only a small, though vocal opposition, I feel the best way to cut down on misconceptions on Islam is for the community to actually meet Muslims. 

So, I think I'll just stick with the private letter to the Islamic Cultural Association. I want to do a kindness, and I think the more people make them feel welcome, the more excited they'll be to join the community.  However, if things get worse, if the xenophobes get more and more open in attacking this one minority group, all because of misconceptions over their religion, then it may be time for more public action.