Islam and the Proximity Paradigm

I love America. Sure, we have our problems like any other culture or nation state, but I love what we hold to be self-evident: All men – as in human beings, not just Americans – are created equal, we have a right to personal freedom and liberty, and that each of us has a tacit responsibility to preserve and protect those rights for our neighbors and our children.

It’s been slow going. Only a few generations ago, ‘equal’ meant equal to your fellow white, male land-owners. The rest of us were screwed. But year by year, through monumental effort and sacrifice, we’ve been broadening the scope to include everyone with a pulse and the willingness to participate in this way of life.

Then one bright fall morning, a handful of crazy people tried to destroy an ideal. They succeeded in taking many innocent lives and toppling a few monuments to our vanity, but they didn’t destroy who we are. Only we can do that. In the heat of fear, we started chipping away at our own liberties. We became a mad dog snarling and biting at everything it could reach. We justified our actions in the name of security without realizing we were killing the very thing we were trying to protect.

More than a decade later, we’re still coming to grips with who we are in this new world. A world that might not universally admire us. A world that might have something to say about our ideals and how we choose to promote them. We have to realize that we’ll never change minds with more violence and intolerance. Of course, there’s no justification for what happened to us. But if we don’t look at the whole picture of who we are and why we’re here today, we are destined to many repeat performances.

History Teaches Nothing

In 1620, another small handful of people decided to change the course of history. They’d been persecuted and marginalized by world powers to the point where they would give their lives for the sake of religious freedom (ironically, a pretty oppressive kind of religious freedom). Their steely commitment to their beliefs gave us Massachusetts. No, I’m not equating the Quakers to terrorists, although the Native Americans might have a slightly different view. Everything we stood for was in direct conflict to the ways of the indigenous population. In their eyes we were hopelessly backward, impinging on both their resources and their culture. Oh, we tried to make nice for a while. At least until we could improve our hunter/gatherer skills and build up our numbers. Then we wiped them out. To the ones we didn’t kill outright, we gave gifts of small pox-infected blankets. How’s that for war crimes?

This story isn’t unique to America. The Subjugate or Annihilate form of nation building gave us the Egyptians, Sparta, Rome, Constantinople, the Mongols, the Soviets, and North Korea. But as Frank Herbert so perfectly encapsulated, ‘every revolution carries with it the seeds of its own destruction.’ The history books prove over and over that this mode d’emploi can’t be sustained. All mighty empires eventually collapse under the weight of their own arrogance. When will we stop acting as if all Others who don’t behave and feel and love and pray exactly as we do are a direct threat to our personal existence? Is our culture and philosophy so weak that the mere presence of another viewpoint can corrupt us? That way of thinking is ignorant and shameful, and it ultimately fails.

It’s worth noting that this is also the kind of absurd, extremist black and white thinking used by terrorists.

People in real roles of power can afford to be tolerant and compassionate; they don’t feel the overwhelming need to convert everyone to their way of being. They would let their happy, healthy lives, the absence of conflict, and presence of justice do the selling for them.

Free Your Mind

In the painfully slow rebuilding process, we saw a HUGE freak-out from chest-beating Ammurrckins about a new mosque that was being planned. I’ll go on record saying that I think it’s wrong to build an Islamic place of worship 2 blocks from ground zero. It should be on the site itself. The entire 9/11 memorial should be dedicated to tolerance and understanding; a kind of Epcot Center for all faiths and philosophies. We should create a place where anyone can go to learn about Islam or I Ching, Quakers or Qabalah. It should be a sanctuary for truth of every flavor and color and voice, drawing no moral distinctions and passing no judgment. It’s simply a place to state, “This is our belief, this is how we got here, and this is how it influences us today.” Tucking a mosque out of sight only puts more distance between us and understanding. We don’t have to adopt or even agree with Islamist philosophy, but we will be better humans if we have at least a handshake acquaintance with its principles.

And because the truly great can afford to be truly humble, the site should also serve as a testament to how America will be better world citizens. There should be some sort of hall where other cultures can express their opinions and provide constructive criticism. Where we, in turn, listen without getting defensive; without making excuses or justifying whatever it is. We may not be able to fix the problem outright, but we promise to be more aware of our behavior and the impact we have on others. A place where we can hold up a mirror and look into it honestly, and have the guts to say, ‘yeah, we’re not perfect. But we’ll try harder.’ And do it all with real gratitude for all we have.

The Fog of War

With the exception of Pearl Harbor (and we know how that worked out for the Japanese), America has been extremely lucky having gone for nearly 2½ centuries without a significant smack down from her detractors. Now we’ve gotten one and it hurts. We hear opponents of the mosque construction using phrases like, ‘dishonoring the memory of those who were killed or sacrificed their lives in the attack.’ This is nothing more than a thin layer of rhetoric being used to disguise our anger and prejudice.

I don’t believe anyone intends to diminish the impact of what we’ve been through. But we believe our hate is justified, and intend to carry it around with us until someone pays. If you subscribe to this way of thinking, here’s something to consider: Knowledge is power. That’s a widely-accepted fact. So it follows that ignorance is weakness. If you see a threat in people who don’t think like you, then it’s to your advantage to know your enemy. Knowing how they think and feel gives you a tactical advantage that you’d be foolish to ignore.

No, I agree this doesn’t seem like a very good path to enlightenment. But I believe knowledge eventually brings understanding, and with understanding comes forgiveness and, eventually, acceptance of the unfamiliar.

In short, I don’t care what road you take to Settle Down Town, as long as you get there.