Got a FB post today from a good friend that saddened me. The gist of the post was a list of terrorist attacks by Muslims with a sarcastic comment about Islam being a religion of peace. It led me to write this:
"I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work."
- Adolf Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936
As one who was born and raised as a Christian, it irks me to be compared to asshat Christians. (To be historically accurate, Hitler may not have been a Christian himself, but he undeniably used Christianity to motivate actual Christians to facilitate the Holocaust.) The Inquisition, The Albigensian Crusade, The Salem Witch Trials, the encomiendas system, the enslavement of Africans to work in the Americas, The Oklahoma City Bombing, the assassination of George Tiller, The Atlanta Olympic Bombing, the “God Hates Fags” protests by Westboro Baptist Church at Iraq Veterans’ funerals have all found justification in someone’s version of Christianity. Yet none persuade me away from the belief that Christianity is a faith designed for peace and healing.
In a largely Christian west with its Amerocentric press, that the only news we receive of Muslims is of the “If it bleeds, it leads” variety should not surprise us. However, probably the most efficient and brutal of all terrorists in the world right now are the Tamil Tigers. The inventors of the suicide vest and the only terrorist organization that can claim the assassination of two heads of state, the Tamil Tigers have probably committed more individual acts of terror than any other single organization in existence. That you have heard so little of them is that their targets have been the Buddhist government in Sri Lanka. You do not think of Hinduism as a religion of violence because the most famous Hindu you know is not a Tamil but Mohandas Gandhi.
In the Muslim world, there are more stories to tell other than beheadings by ISIL or kidnappings by Boko Haram. The World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, Muslim Peacemaker Teams, and The Red Crescent are actively engaged in bringing peace between warring factions or comfort to those afflicted by hardship. The Grameen Bank, providing low interest loans to individuals for the purpose of developing small businesses, has raised the standard of living of people in developing countries, sowing hope and cooperation in areas where despair and strife previously ruled. Muslim Nobel Peace Prize recipients include Mohamed El Baradei, Muhammad Yunis, Tawakel Karman, and Shirin Abadi. Just as it is a logical error to equate a single characteristic to people of a particular faith, it is an error to attribute a single characteristic as the limit of behavior for a single person. Muslim military leader Anwar Sadat and known terrorist Yasser Arafat each also received the Nobel Peace prize along with Israeli military leaders Shimon Perez and Yitzhak Rabin, as well as former Israeli terrorist Menachem Begin. It is often in war and strife that the greatest commitment to peace can be found. Sadat, Rabin, and possibly Arafat were assassinated by those of their own nation and faith for being peace bringers. Not yet a Nobel Laureate, but the youngest person to be nominated for the Peace Prize is one of my heroes, Malala Yousafzai, a more recent addition to the list of those who found courage to bring peace within a conflicted world. She almost suffered the same fate for the same reasons as the ones mentioned above. If you can watch this clip of Malala on the Daily Show and not at least choke up a little, you are probably dead: https://www.youtube.com/...
Whenever we see on our news feeds pictures of an ISIL goon beheading a western journalist or a bombed out store front in Tel Aviv, it might be good to remember the Albigensian Crusade, The Salem Witch Trials, The Thirty Years War, The Dutch Revolt, The French Wars of Religion, The English Civil War, the Irish Troubles, and all the other conflicts that pitted one flavor of Christianity against another. As with Christian history, the vast majority of maimings, deaths, and refugee displacement within the Muslim world today target Muslims inflicted by people of the same faith wearing the asshat of a different color. My understanding of Christianity calls more for prayers of peace and reconciliation for our fellow man rather than isolation and derision.
Peace. Shalom. Salaam.