Muhammad, Detroit, & Afghanistan
I planned to write you today (December 27, 2009) a letter about an extraordinary book I’ve been reading, Memories of Muhammad by Omid Safi, a progressive Muslim, published by HarperOne, the broadest trade publisher of intelligent books on religion.
And I will! – But how can I do that today of all days without addressing the attempted bombing of an airliner approaching Detroit, by a professed Muslim evidently acting in the name of Islam? ?
I intended to describe how Omid Safi looks unblinking at the passages of Quran that seem to encourage anger and even violence against Christians and Jews, as well as unfolding the over-all vision of Muhammad’s life as dedicated to human harmony in affirmation of the One God under varied names.
I intended to share with you how Safi shows that different Muslims carry into our own generation different “memories of Muhammad,” different interpretations of his life that influence the different Muslim communities even today. Even the complexities that the Sunni Muslims whom the US defines as enemies because they support the Pakistani Taliban are the bitter enemies of the Shiite leaders of Iran whom the US also defines as enemies.
And I intended to explore the meanings to Muslims and to all of us of Muharram, the lunar month that Muslims are celebrating right now, the “New Year month” of Muslim tradition, which commemorates the departure of Muhammad, peace be upon him, from Mecca under threat from the city’s power elite, and his regrouping in Medina. From defeat, transformation. A theme surely known to Jews and Muslims in the dark/light festivals of Hanukkah and Christmas.
And I intended to explore the meanings of the holy day of Ashura (“tenth”), the tenth day of Muharram as Yom Kippur is the tenth day of the Jewish new year month of Tishri. Ashura has become the focus of the passionate Shiite commitment to social justice, and its origins are well described in Memories of Muhammad. This year it coincides with the end of “shiva,” the seven days of mourning for the just deceased great Shiite scholar who had become a bitter critic of the Iranian government and whose death has energized the Iranian street opposition.
I will come back to all these. But how can anyone address these concerns today without also addressing the atrocious attempt at a suicide bombing aboard an airliner approaching Detroit?
So let me share my response to that news, with a warning: it is filled with irony, even what some might call sarcasm. What ran through my mind was this:
Oh, thank goodness our troops in Afghanistan are making sure that no ultra-furious terrorists are attacking American airliners in the name of Islam!
Oh. The alleged terrorist is not an Afghan? How strange! He’s not even a Pakistani? Even stranger!
He’s the son of a wealthy and influential Nigerian family? Uhh.
How come the US Army is not bombing Lagos and occupying Nigeria? They even have lots of oil there, and insurgents who are demanding the oil profits be used for local economic development instead of going into super-rich American pockets and very rich Nigerian pockets. What could be a better reason for US Army intervention?
But who would the US Army be protecting? The very same rich Nigerian families who profit from the oil and whose kid (just one, so far as we know) is so infuriated by —- what??! – as to try to kill 300 people on an air flight to Detroit?
Oh yes. According to the US officials, this guy says he was trained in Yemen? Yemen? How come the US Army isn’t occupying Yemen? Oh, I see, we did bomb the hell out of (or into) a Yemeni town just a few days ago, allegedly in the hope of killing Al Qaeda operatives, but according to Yemenis on the scene, killing a lot of women and children. Maybe also some Al Qaeda operatives, and unfortunately those women and kids are just collateral damage.
Except maybe to Muslims all around the world and even some other people, they don’t quite seem like “collateral damage.” They may even seem like real live flesh-and-blood human beings.
And maybe some small proportion of those Muslims not only feel humiliation, not only feel rage, not only feel despair, but boil over into atrocious actions. Into mass murder and attempted mass murder.
Muslims who include an American major and a rich Nigerian kid (OK , 23-year-old enraged young man), and various British-born folks of Pakistani background. — Maybe to those folks, the Yemeni children and the Afghans and Pakistanis who died because they were going to a wedding and got killed from the sky by an American “drone” Predator who thought (if machines can think) they were going to a terrorist get-together, did not seem like “collateral damage” but like real live flesh-and-blood human beings.
Targeted by a majority-Christian nation headed by a devout Christian President who carefully explained upon receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace that his heroes were Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi but he was operating according to (Christian) “just-war” theory and that attacking Afghanistan was crucial to defending the US from terrorists who had originally come from Saudi Arabia and were trained in Hamburg (Germany) and in Florida (USA) and whose original leadership no longer operated inside Afghanistan but now in Pakistan, or maybe Yemen, or maybe Somalia.
Is anybody asking, Why did that American major become so consumed with rage as to murder his comrades? Why did a rich Nigerian kid become so consumed by rage as to try to kill 300 people on an American plane?
Is anybody asking, Does the US occupation force in Afghanistan prevent such atrocities, or multiply the number of people who want to try them?
Is anybody asking, Do we need a whole new approach to terrorism?
There is a saying that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again with outcomes you don’t like, and going the same thing still again while expecting something different to happen.
Nuuuu?
I will come back to Muhammad, Muharram, Ashura, and Omid Safi – but first I think I need to let my kishkes, my innards, settle from my frustration about the US approach to Afghanistan . And Pakistan. And iraq. And Iran. And Yemen. And Palestine.
I hope I’ve used up the irony, the sarcasm. I too don’t want to get caught in my own repetition of the same old response, again and again, even if it isn’t working.
Tomorrow a deeper look.
Shalom, salaam — peace!
— Arthur
Comments
5 comments postedThank you, Rabbi, for your post and for your sarcasm. We need to be able to criticize, question and dialogue. Critical and strategic (new) thinking is needed in this day and age where hurt, anger and war abound but peace and the desire to end war seems to be lacking. Many profit/benefit from war (companies gain revenue, lobbyists a platform, etc.). And many lines of thinking and ideologies are used to bolster and encourage the continuation (not cessation) of war— be it the idea of eradicating terrorism, the “just war theory” or even patriotism. Life is not black and white; there is often much bad in the midst of the good and even something that seems totally bad can have good in it. The application of this being that the Pakistanis, Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians, or Muslims or any other set of people should not be lumped as only “them” nor as “enemies.” They are not only a collective but also a group of individuals—“humans, flesh and blood”— like ourselves. They are not all bad nor are we (though we may be a lot more wrong than we think we are). A basic understanding of different cultures, an understanding that “my way” is not the “only” way and a real appreciation that others can be different and be “ok” is needed in this day and age. In some ways it is easier to love or hate the someone far away (or the idea of the someone far away) for whoever we think they are or are not. But the first (foundational) test comes in how we love or hate the ones living next to us. There are people of various and sundry nationalities, ethnic groups and religions living next door, across the street and all around town. How do I talk about them? How do I interact with them— do I learn from them, appreciate them? Do I try to get to know them? It may be their uncle in the earthquake or their cousin who was just blown up as “collateral damage”. People, individuals, mothers, children, aunts, sisters, cousins, brothers. Unique individuals snuffed out by American forces, whether with good intentions or not, they are still gone from their families and will be missed.
An aside: not all sects of Christianity agree with the “just war theory.” There are a number of groups who have historically been pacifist and remain so— such as the Mennonites, the Quakers, the Amish and others. Even among other Christian circles, all do not agree with the idea of “just war.” A good book that explains some of the “recent” history of this is How Christians Made Peace With War by John Driver. Especially of late, there have been a number of dissenters who question that there must be a better way than trying to “kill off all the terrorists.” Many have debated as to whether or not we are even breaking even (meaning— are we even killing enough existing terrorists to keep up with the number of new terrorists being trained) or maybe we are merely creating more “fuel for the fire” of the “terrorists”.
So, is there any other way? Some propose a “just peace theory”. They propose that maybe our way of war in this age is not working as it should and we need to find a different path. Valerie Elverton Dixon is one who supports this theory (and blogs at www.justpeacetheory.com).
Thank you for asking, questioning, seeking. Others of us are out here wanting to do the same thing but often we do not have a voice. We must each put our voices together so that we may possibly be heard above the loud drone of the jets and bombers.
Shalom!
—Faris
We on the liberal side of things do not have all the answers, by far. We have a long way to go. When the party of millionaires share the same voting habits of poor rednecks, who ride shot gun yes are message is not denting their brains. Why? Should we even try or continue to ignore them by writing them off as stupid for voting against their best interests? If they are asleep it is our duty to wake them. he who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man follow him.
Jesus/Yeshua taught the golden rule, which covers “thou shalt not kill.” Early Christians were pacifists. Those were the ones thrown to the lions and persecuted by forces of empire. In 325 c.e. the Council of Nicea codified “christian” teachings in the Nicene Crede which became the official “christian” belief for the empire. Shortly thereafter Augustine developed Just War theory which stated the conditions upon which it was acceptable and indeed the duty of christians to fight for the empire. How interesting that Obama should revert to Just War theory when receiving the Nobel Prize as this theory is in fact a perversion and corruption of Christianity that has been ongoing for 1700 years.
Why should the Taliban “accomodate” the occupation?
George Washington was also an “insurgent”.
What would he have gained if he had “made peace” with the occupying British army instead of working to defeat it?
The Taliban has made it clear that they are not interested in any form on peaceful coexistence. Obama acknowledged that this war isn’t going to turn out well for anyone, and believes it has to be done anyway.
Is this war necessary? Gandhi protested the war against Hitler. He didn’t have all the answers. I don’t know the answer to this.
Are civilian casualties ever “just” under any circumstances? The causes and purposes of individual terrorism have long been a subject of debate, but even individual acts of violence, whether motivated by faith, emotion, ideology, power, or profit are authoritarian by nature, as they deprive their targets of human rights and individual choices.
Why do people seem surprised when governments act like governments? America, Israel, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Yemen.-I stop here because there are too many states to list here- act like governments? The language and currency of political authority is backed by coercion, which must have final recourse to lethal force to be credible.
I voted for Obama, but I’m not disappointed because I never expected much to begin with. I’ve said this before elsewhere, and I’ll risk saying it again here: Democrats and Republicans will both throw me in a dungeon for a piece of crack smaller than my smallest fingernail. Democrats and Republicans are both poised to kill, and only debate the details of where, when, and who. Democrats and Republicans will both keep the rich on welfare at all costs, while incrementally cutting off support to those in need.
Look to anyone who can think, on the right or left, and you will see what this is about.
Even the much vilified Ayn Rand, perhaps the only real thinker on the right in the last century saw this coming, a long time ago http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/698163/ayn_rands_faith_and_forc…
Faith and force, and faith in force are destroying our world. And the need to search for answers remains, because if you are honest, you will admit you don’t have them all.
Peace -DM
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