Twain wrote: “You can find in a text whatever you bring”. In the case of Christians and Muslims, being homo-sapiens, they tend to bring hostility and aggression, employing theology not as a tool to rise above barbarism, but instead selectively co-opting Holy verse in order to justify deplorable acts. Our justifications for violence are not manifestations of sacred texts, but instead the product of bigotry merged with prehistoric, congenital, culturally reinforced aggressive and violent instincts.
A Muslim that recently lectured at my church was asked to reconcile the “gentle spirit” represented by his understanding of Islam, with the hostility and violence associated with “Muslim extremists”. He responded by saying they are irreconcilable. He then pointed out that Muslims in Iraq, for example, are similarly perplexed by the hypocrisy of American Christians: “How can we cite all the beautiful passages from the New Testament, speak of love, grace, compassion, and sanctity of life, then give them ‘awe and shock’; raining bombs and destroying their country, killing thousands of innocent civilians?”
I have an answer, it’s called bigotry. How else can you explain a strategy to “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here”? Life is cheap over there. Better a million should die “over there” might it prevent an attack here.
Never mind the fact that every National Intelligence Estimate since the beginning of the Iraq war has concluded it hasn’t made us safer but in fact has served to increase recruitment of terrorists, elevating the risk of terrorism worldwide, including the United States. Never mind. Really, never mind, it isn’t relevant! Even if such a scheme proved effective, it would nonetheless remain a racist, immoral policy. If we really were all equal in the eyes of God, if Muslim life were equal to Christian life, we’d take our chances and fight them here, risking our own lives to save millions “over there”.
Of course we view ourselves as innocent victims that merely retaliated for an unprovoked attack. Setting aside the fact that Iraq did not in any way participate in the events of 9/11, consider the propaganda of bin Laden, which cited the “million children” that died in Iraq in the 1990’s as a direct result of U.S. backed sanctions. I don’t believe America was responsible for such tragedy, assuming it occurred. Nevertheless, the al Qaeda terrorists that attacked America no doubt believed this to be the case. Just as we tenaciously cling to our own self-deceptions, in their minds, no less susceptible than the American psyche to religious, ethnocentric, and nationalistic bias, aggressive nature and thirst for revenge, the fanatics that identified themselves as Muslim viewed their attacks on the U.S. as legitimate retaliation for the unjustified killing of innocent civilians.
1,000,000 Iraqi children. 3,000 imperialists. Seemed fair to them.
I think you now see the problem – or perhaps not.
We want others to eschew violence first, then we’ll follow suit. We want others to stop their executions, because their motives aren’t as pure as ours. We want others to refrain from torture because they might torture us, and the lives they suppose they’ll save by the practice are perceived as less valuable than American lives.
What if we took the lead? What if we exercised military restraint? What if we refused to torture? What if we refused to execute? What if we afforded everyone due process, just because they are human, regardless of citizenship? What if we really respected the sanctity of life; all life, regardless of geography, ideology, theology, or ethnicity?
Perish the thought! That’s something Jesus would have us do, or the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, the Pope, Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama.
What the hell do they know?
We have our safety and security to defend above and beyond any other considerations, especially moral and ethical ones.
By the way, we have an election coming up, and we have our replacement Christian Candidate. He set a record for executions in Arkansas.
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