No Method to Our Madness: On Religious Tolerance
February 11, 2016
Our modern global community has been seized by terror, in every sense of the word.
On November 13th, 2015, Islamic State militants carried out a horrific attack on the city of Paris. Shooters and suicide bombers launched near-simultaneous strikes on the Stade de France, the Bataclan concert hall, and several other entertainment venues. The radicals left hundreds of people wounded, and 130 lost their lives.
Less than a month later, such appalling tragedy struck a chord at home. On December 2nd, a holiday party in San Bernadino, California was cut short by Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik. The couple opened fire at the Inland Regional Center, killing fourteen people and severely wounding twenty-two others. According to reports, both shooters, now deceased, had pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State on social media before the terror attack.
There have been scores of stories in the past few years about religious extremists in the Muslim community. We’ve heard of everything from huge terrorist machines like ISIS to the ragtag bands of radicals they inspired. Lately, though, it feels as if Americans have finally reached a breaking point. We’ve passed the stages of mere shock and anger and are now digressing into full-fledged hysteria.
After the San Bernadino shooting, hundreds of Californians in the area flocked to gun shops to purchase weapons and register for licenses. Many honestly felt that owning firearms was the only way they could protect themselves from Islamic jihadists to come. Republican politician Ted Cruz suggested “carpet-bombing” Syria in a December debate to eliminate ISIS. Donald Trump demanded all American mosques be closed. Oh, and he wants a government database of all Muslims in this country.
…Are you seeing a pattern here?
Exactly – we all sound crazy.
Yes, there are Muslims in this world who are religious extremists. Yes, jihad is their reason for killing thousands of innocents. Yes, terrorism is affecting tons of people worldwide. That doesn’t give us any excuse to completely lose our minds over this. Stooping to levels of barbarism and trying to fight fire with fire will ultimately end in disaster for everyone.
Our president seems to understand this. On December 6th, Barack Obama delivered an address from the Oval Office concerning the San Bernadino shooting and his agenda for combating terrorism. The plan features four major steps:
- tracking down terrorists and dispelling their hateful ideology;
- disrupting ISIS operations and cutting off its financing;
- training the Syrian and Iraqi forces already on the ground; and
- resolving the Syrian civil war. This way, its citizens, and those in all countries, can focus on destroying ISIS together.
“Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values, or giving into fear,” Obama said. “It’s what groups like [ISIS] are hoping for. Instead we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless, and by drawing upon every aspect of American power.”
While President Obama did urge Congress to vote on authorizing the use of military force against terrorists, he cautioned everyone not to get drawn into another war in the Middle East. Remember: sending small, specialized forces overseas for a few months is one thing. Sending thousands of soldiers to fight and die in combat, for years, is a totally different issue. The American people are weary enough as it is from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention there are better things to do with our treasury than fund another generation of war. To top it all off, Obama noted that terrorists could use the presence of American troops as a rallying cry to bring even more radicals into their ranks. Anyway you look at it, all-out war with ISIS would be nothing short of catastrophic.
Sadly, some of the biggest names in the media today can’t seem to wrap their heads around that.
I’m talking about Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential candidate nomination. He called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” And that means a universal ban–if you’re a tourist, if you’re seeking a visa, if you’re an American Muslim returning from overseas, you are not welcome! (Though Trump later contradicted that last part in a GMA interview…) The man doesn’t care that his Machiavellian rhetoric is insanely offensive. As long as it weeds out the terrorists, he’s convinced it doesn’t matter.
“You’re gonna have more World Trade Centers,” Trump claims, if you don’t put every Muslim in existence under suspicion. “We can be politically correct, and we can be stupid, but it’s gonna get worse and worse.”
What Donald Trump wants is the ultimate war: not just against ISIS and terrorists abroad, but against the Muslim community here at home. He’s stirring up an “everyone-is-the-enemy” mentality that will do this country all kinds of harm.
There’s a reason why Trump has been so successful with his campaign. And it’s not because he’s a brilliant politician who lives and breathes Constitutional justice. He’s a businessman, a brilliant marketer. He knows how to sell stories. He knows exactly what to say to draw people in. Trump recognizes that there are xenophobic, ignorant, hateful people in this country. Lots of them. To win the Republican nomination, statistically speaking, he has to win the support of all those people. How does he do that? By tapping into their xenophobic, ignorant, hateful ideology, of course!
People rally behind Donald Trump because they truly believe that Islam is evil. They’re thinking, “All Muslims are plotting our demise. Everything Islam is an abomination.”
Exhibit A: On December 17th, a school in Virginia had to shut down for the day when a mob of outraged parents attacked. They were angry with teacher Cheryl LaPorte for assigning their children homework involving the shahada, the Islamic statement of faith. No, the kids weren’t forced to swear by it; they just had to try drawing the Arabic characters with which it was written. Apparently, that’s promoting Islam and grounds for firing LaPorte.
It’s craziness. Trump’s feeding into that craziness, promising that if he becomes president, he’ll get rid of them all, like a perverted Prince Charming off to save his people from the monsters. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, doesn’t like where this is going. “Are we talking internment camps? Are we talking the final solution to the Muslim question? I feel like I’m back in the 1930s.”
Hooper is not the first one to compare Donald Trump’s political strategy to that of Adolf Hitler, and rightfully so. He controls his subjects with fear and hatred, making monsters out of people who’d never hurt a fly. Civilization as we know it will crumble out from under us if history repeats itself like that. I honestly can’t put it into better words than those the President used in his address:
“We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like [ISIS] want. [ISIS] does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers. Part of a cult of death. And they account for a tiny fraction of more than a billion Muslims around the world, including millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology.
“Muslim Americans are our friends and our neighbors. Our co-workers. Our sports heroes. And, yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. We have to remember that.”
Fear and hatred will never win the day. Perspective and understanding will. The United States is a mighty nation, but by itself it can’t completely wipe out terrorism. Certainly not if it’s broken into factions by rifts of bigotry. By banding together with our allies, and all of them, instead of casting them away, the good people of this world can defeat any evil that stands in their way.
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