On “Fox and Friends” Wednesday December 2, a presidential candidate and celebrity said that to defeat ISIS, “you have to take out their families.” I’m assuming a rhetorical “you” in this case, but then, I understand what “rhetorical” means.
This statement garnered no raised eyebrows or changes in facial expression from the panel in the studio, though one broadcaster did try to interrupt him, and another checked the (non)reactions of his cohosts, then nodded for reasons that perhaps he is not even cognizant of.
Whether you find it inspiring, repulsive, disturbing or ho-hum political swagger, this statement does not exist in a context-free vacuum. Here’s some context:
- Americans are engaged in a passionate debate about admitting Syrian Muslim refugees to our country. There are not many here now and firm plans to bring in only 10,000. Many people fear that these refugees—the bulk of which are women and children (i.e. families)—may be linked to terrorists if they are not terrorists themselves. That is, they may be ISIS families.
- There has been a sharp uptick of violence against Muslims and Muslim properties in the US since the refugee crisis began. More than one cab driver has been attacked (fists in one case, a gun in another) because they were Muslim or seemed Muslim (he was an Ethiopian Christian). More than one woman has been beaten and had her hijab ripped from her head.
The formula of fear that grows out of these factors seems inevitable: IF any of the refugees in the US might be ISIS terrorists (or the families of ISIS terrorists) AND IF we have to defeat ISIS by taking out their families, THEN . . . What?
Do the math. Does anyone doubt that, some passionate and frightened person will not consider this IF/THEN statement a logical and valid reason to kill people they suspect of being ISIS families?
Can’t happen here? Let me add some more context.
Recently
at a town hall meeting with a state representative in South Carolina, a group of concerned citizens demanded to know what could be done about this refugee crisis. A woman spoke of Christian values being incompatible with Muslim ones. (I’m not sure which Christian values she was thinking of—the article didn’t say.) Another asked if the Syrians couldn’t be sent home on “troop ships”. A man asked if they couldn’t be flown to Saudi Arabia. When the state representative said that it wasn’t that simple, the man was reportedly frustrated and wanted to know what recourse Americans had.
“Do we shoot them?” he asked.
This question did not cause an outcry of protest, or sudden, breathless, cricket-laced silence, or a shaking of heads and clucking of tongues, or some outspoken soul observing that the question was un-American, un-Christian, and uncalled-for. It inspired laughter and applause.
The state representative fed the fire by stating, “This immigration fiasco that we’re in the middle of is going to take away the very things that we’re dear about.” Clearly he meant “the things we hold dear,” but I’m sure listeners got the message: Be afraid—be very afraid of the refugees; they will take unspecified things away from you.
This was in late September. Two months later, into this atmosphere of fear, anger, hatred, and ignorance, a celebrity politician with a huge reach lobs “you have to take out” the families of terrorists—which an unsettling number of people seem to believe may be among the displaced Syrians coming to America.
I have never been very good with numbers, but I am awfully good with word problems. This one is terrifying in its implications and its potential to take this country down a path that no country should ever again tread—but especially a country whose citizens make as much of its “values” and “exceptionalism” as we do.
As much as I would love to welcome Syrian refugees into my country, my state (which is welcoming them), my town, my home, I now feel compelled to beg my government to send them somewhere else, because they are no safer among Americans than they were among the terrorists they fled.
Someone surely must have noted that when you begin to use your enemy’s tactics in a war, you have already lost. In this case, we will have lost our nation’s soul.
If ye stay not the hand of the oppressor, if ye fail to safeguard the rights of the down-trodden, what right have ye then to vaunt yourselves among men? Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah CXVIII
‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. … Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. … inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matthew 24:34-46
Hast thou observed him who belieth religion? That is he who repelleth the orphan, and urgeth not the feeding of the needy. Ah, woe unto worshippers who are heedless of their prayer; who would be seen (at worship) yet refuse small kindnesses! Qur’an, Surih 107:1-7
Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah CXXX