RBWords - Volume 19 - Number 9: September 2006
Something to Think About
The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the recent passage of legislation concerning trial of those who are detained or charged with terrorism highlight a serious problem that underlies all of this activity. We are a country that is now living in fear. This fear is not just of those few persons who are actively seeking to cause as much damage as possible to or even destroy the American culture and nation. This fear concerns a major religious body, Islam. I have to use the expression \"body\" here cautiously since Islam is not an organized single body. And, by now, most Americans are aware that there are factions or currents within the world of Islam that are quite opposed to each other - Sunni and Shi\'ite, etc.. It is not simply a matter of American foreign policy in regard to Israel and the Palestinians or other geopolitical questions. It is a clash of fundamental outlooks on faith and social life! The American notions of separation of Church and State on the constitutional level and the increasing privatization of religion in social life are foreign to Islamic thought which sees all of life as subject to God\'s will. Our secular ways and the communication of those ways by global means is a threat to the Islamic world.
Some Islamic faithful have chosen to act violently toward that perceived threat with terrifying results. Our military response cannot be said to have been very successful in countering it if recently released intelligence estimates are any indication. A given nation may be subject to our military action but that is not going to change the minds of militants who are in no doubt that they are doing God a favor by fighting the threat of American secular culture. The ability of these militant persons to strike almost anywhere anytime has inspired legislation that many in Congress rightly perceive as not just a threat to terrorists but a direct attack on the very freedoms that we are trying to protect! This is what fear does to us. We become like a frightened mob and we look for terrorists under every stone and around every corner. Those of us who remember the McCarthy hearings of the 50\'s know well what happens when America gets fearful. Our ignorance of Islam is another powerful element in all of this. Catholics were killed in riots in this country in the 1800\'s due to the fear of some that the Pope and the church were plotting to overthrow American government and impose Vatican rule. Are we going to repeat that experience against Muslims living in the United States?
The future of this situation is very unclear right now. My prayer is that all of us whatever our faith can be free of fear of one another. Must any religious faith, out of fear of others, seek all political hegemony. The Catholic Church has learned the hard way that this does not work. One can only hope that the majority of Islam believes that too. IT\'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
\"There are questions at issue between Christians to which I do not think we have been told the answer. There are some to which I may never know the answer: if I asked them, even in a better world, I might (for all I know) be answered as a far greater questioner was answered: \'What is that to thee? Follow thou me. \'