Mosque at Ground Zero: Offensive or Inclusive?
September 29, 2010
The Fares Center Conference Room
Speakers: Cheney Wells (MALD ’11), Mariam Jalalzada (MALD ’11), Ilya Lozovsky (MALD ’12), Hammad Hammad (MALD ’11), Prashanth Parameswaran (MALD ’12), Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi (MIB ’12)
Moderators: COL Bentley Nettles and LTC Thomas Rasmussen, Army Senior Service College Fellows at the International Security Studies Program

Speaker Biographies

Cheney Wells (MALD ’11) is a 2nd year MALD student at Fletcher, concentrating on Development Economics and Human Security. This past summer he worked in Sri Lanka with Kiva and BRAC, assisting their microfinance operations. Prior to Fletcher, he worked in Costa Rica for two years with Peace Corps, in small-business development. As an undergraduate at NYU, he studied Economics and European Studies.

Mariam Jalalzada (MALD ’11) studies economic development and international marketing and at the Fletcher School. Prior to her studies, she worked with a local non-profit organization in Kabul, Afghanistan where as the project development officer managed and monitored various peace building, health, and literacy related programs. More recently, she has worked with multiple international agencies such as the Italian Cooperation office (IC) on the effectiveness of women-owned enterprises and with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on agriculture development, where she was involved with monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of the agribusiness and modernized agricultural practices and how that have contributed to the overall economic development of the rural communities. She graduated from Simmons College with a B.A. in International Relations and Economics.

Ilya Lozovsky (MALD ’12) is studying international communications and issues related to strengthening of civil societies, rule of law, and democratization at The Fletcher School. Ilya has previously worked for WorldBoston, Boston’s World Affairs Council, where he administered a State Department exchange program that exposed hundreds of international visitors to American society and institutions. As an undergraduate at Tufts University, Ilya studied international relations and German studies, and spent a year as an exchange student in Tübingen, Germany.

Hammad Hammad (MALD ’11) is a second year MALD student focusing on Public International Law and Human Security. His main research interests revolve around the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Prashanth Parameswaran (MALD ’12) studies energy policy and international business relations at The Fletcher School. Previously, he has had stints at several think tanks including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Project 2049 Institute, focusing primarily on Asian security issues. His work has been published in several research journals, Asian newspapers, and on-line publications, including World Politics Review, The Straits Times (Singapore), The China Post (Taiwan), The Nation (Thailand), and the Irrawaddy News Magazine.

Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi (MIB ’12) is an Emerging Markets Scholar, MIB Class of 2012. Prior to joining Fletcher, Ravi managed people, products, and P&Ls in the complex markets of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East for organizations such as Standard Chartered and American Express for almost a decade. He also has an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila. Apart from a career interest in emerging markets, Ravi is passionate about gender equality and diversity issues and has a keen academic interest in diasporas.

Summary

For its kickoff event of the 2010-2011 academic year, the Mediterranean Club invited six students to discuss the pros and cons of building the proposed Park 51 Islamic Center near Ground Zero in New York City. The students were evenly divided on the issue.

While all six panelists agreed on the constitutionality of the mosque, the debate centered upon whether or not it was insensitive to build an Islamic center near the site of the September 11th attacks nine years after the incident. Several important points were introduced, including the role that "community" plays in downtown urban areas, protections against the tyranny of the majority, and the growth of Islamophobia in America. Comparisons were drawn to the Civil Rights Movement and historical biases against other religious groups such as Irish Catholics and Jews.

After two rounds of statements and counter-statements by the panelists, the floor was opened up to Q&A from the student audience, fielded by the military fellows. Several students offered anecdotes from their own upbringings and professional experience into the debate, and extrapolated the New York-based issue to a macro level. The roundtable came to a close with a discussion of what truly defines human rights and social tolerance.

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