Even as the controversy saw these groups grapple with wrenching First-Amendment questions of religious freedom, the man at the centre of the controversy, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, persisted with his decades-long efforts to promote a multi-faith dialogue for better understanding across faith traditions. He ultimately won the approval of not only the Manhattan community board where Park51 is located but also NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and even U.S. President Barack Obama.

What does this mean? It means a number of things. It [raises the question,] how do we express our values? Every religious tradition has a perennial challenge, which is, what are the eternal values of our faith and how do we express them in a different time and in a different place? So we now have a task to do [and that is to ask,] how do we express ourselves as British Muslims, French Muslims, German Muslims and American Muslims? This is the task I am working on and one of the key aspects of this Cordoba House project [is that it] has been my vision and it will be built, whether it is on that site or this site.

-- Imam Abdul Rauf spoke to Narayan Lakshman (Photo: Narayan Lakshman)

Islamic Studies used to happen under the rubric of “Orientalist Studies” which was mainly philological and text-based, and was carefully sealed off from wider currents of cultural criticism. But in the 1980s, scholars began to take Islamic Studies out of this narrow field and merge it more with Religious Studies, connected to wider intellectual trends like feminism, interfaith dialogue, and progressive political analysis.  In the 1990s, this yielded a new intellectual climate. Mature scholars trained in Islamic Studies and textual traditions began to make bolder inquiries, and homosexuality was no longer considered a taboo subject; so for instance we see the books and articles of Everett Rowson (such as “The Effeminates of Medina” which you published in Que(e)rying Religion) who is a scholar of Arabic literature and Middle Eastern Studies. What was missing was a more intimate engagement with the religious tradition of Islam. This came with feminist Muslim scholars. They provided the techniques of skeptically critical yet faithfully engaged scholarship that nurtured a next generation of scholars. There was the cautiously secular approach of Leila Ahmed and the audaciously zealous approach of Amina Wadud; both styles of feminism provided tools and perspectives for sexuality-sensitive scholars to appraise the religious tradition of Islam from within. -- Scott Kugle in an interview with Susan Henking (Photo: Scott Kugle)

The revolution is completely unfulfilled. The situation is very frustrating for the youth that led the protests, came together and were there on Tahrir Square pushing for change. The youth are unorganized and have been pushed out, co-opted and fragmented into different groups. So we are disenfranchised and disappointed – maybe even more disenfranchised then before. I blame the US for not taking a strong stance on the Military Council – but I cannot just blame them completely. The revolutionary forces have not organized their demands or brought together their activities. There are over 70 political parties being created, there are over 210 coalitions of which only 5 or 6 are efficient. The scene is very fragmented and all over the place. The winners are the Muslim Brotherhood – but I am not scared of them. Why should I be? The liberals are using rhetoric like that of the previous government against them to try and keep the Muslim Brotherhood out of politics. They are trying to scare the West.-- Egyptian Activist Ahmed Naguib in an interview with Ben Judah

It is much easier to deal with so-called terrorists from beyond your borders and from beyond your frontiers. It is much more difficult when it is someone raised in your country that is supposed to uphold Christian values. The man is a Christian they reported. Why someone in a country like Norway carried such an attack? No government seems to be taking a swing at it; actually it is giving a pass, by constant attacks and dehumanization of Islam and constant attack on migrants coming to their countries. Currently we see both of them coming together ironically as Britain and France fight a war in Libya. There is a growing refugee crisis from North Africa and they welcomed these people. Strangely, we see growing hysteria about Islamic refugees coming into Western Europe. I think these governments find it difficult because they themselves created the atmosphere in which something like this can be created. -- Chris Bambery, Author and Journalist

There’s no one-size-fits-all. Something that’s a tradition for me may be very different from your family norm. I grew up in Massachusetts and was the only Muslim student in my school. I grew up very integrated; the Western values and Islam [were] handled side-by-side. I saw no difference between being Muslim and being Western. There’s a way to find a balance in your identity that makes sense for you and the way you were brought up. So I don’t have the right to comment on how anybody should live. Because Islam is made up of more than eighty different ethnicities in America, there is not one monolith approach that all Muslims must use. One of the things that troubles me greatly, not just for women but for youth as well, is that they don’t have the kind of alternative narratives available to them online that offer them that a diversity of thought on particular issues. I’m not talking about the typical conversations of hijab versus non-hijab, do you drink, do you not drink, do you date, do you not date - that happens all the time – but to talk about the choices you make and why you make them and how you live them. -- Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in an interview with Asma T. Uddin and Sarah Jawaid

In Jinnah's Pakistan, religious minorities were protected while in today's Pakistan, even moderate Muslims who want to peacefully co-exist with people of other religions are insecure now. Jinnah's word was betrayed immediately after his death but the real change came in the '70s when General Zia-ul-Haq gave a long rope to radical Islamists taking advantage of the Afghan war. He also created separate electorates for Hindus thus virtually making them second-class citizens. -- MLA Ram Singh Lodha in an interview with Uday Mahurkar, Sr. Editor India Today

… from economic issues to matters of national security, women's issues are neither "soft" nor exclusively "women's." Women and their children are still 70 percent of all civilians killed in war and 80 percent of all refugees. Only 8 percent of all peace talks have included women at any level. and only 3% of peace agreements are signed by women. Women are still underpaid for doing the same work as men—they do 2/3 the world's work, grow 50% of the world's food and are yet earning 10% of the income and own less than 2% of the property. One out of 4 women worldwide still face violence. -- Zainab Salbi in an interview with Eva Fernández Ortiz

Up till now, certain Gulf states have tended to provide a kind of link between Iran and the other Gulf states: Kuwait, Qatar and Oman in particular. Oman, however, is currently going through an internal crisis of its own; Qatar, which has recently emerged as a new regional power in the Arab world, has been distancing itself to an ever greater degree from Tehran, while Kuwait's relations with Tehran have slumped to an all time low. All of this means that the overall situation has clearly become more critical. -- Tarek Anegay in an interview with Lebanese political scientist Khattar Abou Diab

Dialogue with Pakistan is in India’s benefit. The talks between the two countries need to produce greater investment and economic interdependence. Pakistan can benefit from this economic growth and this is the factor that will bring the two countries together. The best way to combat terrorism is to attach Pakistan’s economy to India’s. But India does have legitimate concerns and has been unnerved by Pakistan’s delivery on terrorism. There has been no attack after 26/11, but another one is possible. India is an easy target, through the Kashmir border and the sea border. That’s, of course, a worry. India has every right to be disappointed with the Pakistan government’s response to terror, to 26/11 and with Pakistan for what they have allowed to develop on their soil. The solution has two directions. The first is to isolate Pakistan, punish the ISI and the army, and the other is to make Pakistan a part of India’s success story. -- Steve Coll in an interview with Alia Allana 

The possibility of another 9/11 are very low. But that does not mean the threat does not exist, and this needs to be understood through its current philosophy: one man, one bomb. And there are examples to validate this — last year there were two attempted attacks, one in Times Square in New York and the other in a New York subway. So the threat is random suicide bombings in Europe and the US. In fact, my fear would be attacks on Western military targets. -- Alia Allana

Gujarati Dalits have produced scores of saints and heroes who challenged Brahminism in their own ways and struggled for the rights of our people. But their memory has either been lost or else their traditions have been totally Brahminised. The Dalit priest (mahant) of the shrine was roped in by the BJP and his brother was given a BJP ticket to fight the elections. This was done deliberately to promote Dalit-Muslim conflict because that area has a sizeable Muslim population. -- Rajesh Solanki  in an interview with Yoginder Sikand, NewAgeIslam.com  

Iqbal’s been a sacred cow. But not anymore. He was a cultural icon who is wrongly hailed in this country as being some kind of a political hero as well. Iqbal’s audience was exclusive. He was talking to Muslim elite whom he wanted to emerge as a vanguard and rid the Muslim masses from what he considered were illiterate and distorted ideas about Islam. His understanding of ‘folk Islam’ that the Muslim masses still follow in the region was condescending and riddled with elitist biases.-- Nadeem Farooq Paracha

A major turn came in my life when my parents divorced. It was a pretty messy affair. My mother was highly educated, with a double MA. However, because she was not aware of all the many rights that the Muslim women have in the Quran, but which the mullahs have largely subverted in the name of Islam, she had a rough deal. Her lack of knowledge about women’s rights in Islam, as properly understood, disadvantaged her immensely. Had she been aware of her rights, she could have asserted her demands and might not had to resort to divorce. -- Sheeba Aslam Fehmi in an interview with Yoginder Sikand, NewAgeIslam.com

Demand for separate Muslim quotas is intrinsically discriminatory, and so is the entire politics around minority institutions. Granting minority status might give some people or institutions a temporary financial reprieve, but in the long run it saps their confidence, self esteem and dignity and undermines the quest for building a cohesive society. The very fabric of secularism is torn asunder when a nation starts viewing people or institutions in terms compartments based on ascriptive identities such as religion. The fundamental principles of equality are murdered in broad day light, and it only leads to the balkanization of society. All quotas are like begging bowls that will never be filled and that will make the ‘beneficiary’ community rust and perish rather than perform. When there’s a begging bowl in your hand, you never tend to seek to excel on merit or to be a go-getter. -- Firoz Bakht Ahmed in an interview with Yoginder Sikand for NewAgeIslam.com

I think that the average Muslim knows that suicide is forbidden by Islam. But there are still people who kill either themselves or an entire group of people. These people have to have a watertight argument based on Islamic law for carrying out these acts. To date, the legally watertight arguments used by these people have not been discussed or declared to be wrong. Moreover, no moderate legal scholar or anybody who advocates taking a middle course and doesn't believe in these acts of violence has yet gone on television and publicly opposed people like Bin Laden or al-Zawahiri, declared their ideas and actions to be wrong, and openly stated that such acts and ideas are forbidden by Islam. I don't think that this has happened as yet. And I don't think that these people are even in a position to do so, because the sources that are taught at Al-Azhar and in Saudi Arabia are the same as those used by Bin Laden and Aiman al-Zawahiri. But one person picks, another chooses, and yet another selects from these sources the things that suit them. We cannot go on without a radical religious reform in the Arab world, like the one initiated by Martin Luther. We have reached a dead end; we are stuck in a dark tunnel.  We must completely rethink the fundamental principles. It is said that the independent interpretation of sources is allowed, and I agree with that. -- Muhammad Shahrur in an interview with Ahmad Hissou