I posted this to my Facebook last night and, as it starts to spread across the Internet, I thought the Daily Kos community would appreciate it. Suggestions would be appreciated; I’m sending it to a few pretty significant New Hampshire newspapers.
The last week has been a tragic one. Along with the constant sectarian and geopolitical violence of the Middle East, with its daily death-tolls in the hundreds, our world has been rocked by twin crises, the killing of 43 in the Lebanese city of Beirut and a horrifying chain of terrorist attacks in Paris killing, as of current estimates, 124. I spent part of my afternoon at a vigil for those last two attacks, where speakers discussed a dark reality: this week, ISIS had a great victory.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-styled caliph of the Islamic State and leader of their military and terror operations, has publicly stated that his goal is to take over the Muslim world and converting his slowly-developing state into a multi-continental, fundamentalist-Sunni-Islamic empire. Realizing the inherent impossibility of conquering and holding so much territory through conventional methods, he’s chosen an unconventional strategy; conduct a campaign of Islamist terror across the Western and Shia world in order to turn their victims more racist, more isolationist, and more hateful toward Muslims. They hope, in the end, to make conditions for Muslims bad enough that they will radicalize and join their cause. This plan, sadly, seems to have basis in reality; look to Europe, where Islamophobia has led thousands of Muslims, primarily from Britain, France and Germany, to take up radical ideology and the cause of the Islamic State.
However, there’s a simple solution to all of this. al-Baghdadi is counting on you to follow the lead of Ted Cruz, who called today for Muslims to receive intense scrutiny upon entering the country, with the suggestion that they not be let in at all. ISIS counts on you to share that Facebook post saying that you’ve got your guns ready for when Muslims come to your neighborhood. The ghost of bin Laden is counting on you to walk across the street when you see Muslims, or to call for a mosque not to be built in your town.
Islam is a religion not unlike any other. It has its bloody parts, yes. It also has deeply peaceful parts; the Qu’ran specifically says (al-Quran, 5:32) that “if one kills a single innocent, it is as if he destroyed all the world”. It has, historically, been spread by the sword; it has also been spread by diplomacy and charity and trade. And to claim that any major religion doesn’t have its dark marks would be fundamentally dishonest: can we condemn Islam for violence and simultaneously forgive the verses of the Old Testament where “blessed is he who dashes the babies of Babylon upon the rocks” (Psalm 137:9) or Christianity’s Book of Revelation, where Jesus comes to Earth “with a robe wrapped in blood” (Rev 19:13) and leads his followers in the extermination of all of those who reject Christianity? Can we condemn Islam for ISIS without condemning Hinduism or Buddhism for their radicals massacring Muslim minorities in India and Burma? And lest I come across as favoring those without religion, can we ignore that a major chapter of the history of atheism takes place in Russia and China and entails the enslavement of religious dissidents against the atheistic state?
What I’m getting at here is that in the wake of a week of horror, the last thing we need is more hate. Every time we see, as a people, a crisis, there are opportunities to hate, and so many take them. Think of the fires burning in Baltimore after the killing of Freddie Gray. Think of the riots throughout America after Martin Luther King’s assassination. Think of the paranoia and fear and loathing and war that we drove ourselves into after 9/11. There are also such opportunities for goodness and love and humanity in crisis. Think of that sweet, old, sobbing woman, forgiving Dylann Roof for killing her daughter and 8 others in that Charleston church. Think of how America came together behind the shocked people of Newtown after the Sandy Hook shooting, and the movement for gun control that spurred. Think of all the people who have coalesced together after crises like the killings of Sandra Bland and Michael Brown and Freddie Gray and Eric Gardner to stand together and remind the world that, in fact, black lives do and should matter. Think of Boston Strong, think of Britain “keeping calm and carrying on”, think of “we are Charlie Hebdo”. Think of that shining moment, before the hate, before the division, when we stood together and said that our nation was going to be all right after the horrors of 9/11. Think of last night when we all had tricolores on our profile pictures not out of a need to show strength or out of aggression toward some “other”, but in sympathy with the French people.
Our enemies are counting on you to hate. Do me, do yourself, do everyone else a favor and reject them that satisfaction. Don’t hate. And then, do one better and love.