Commentary: I was at my usual seat in the wonderful Library of Congress reading room, when they announced it was closing immediately. There’d been attacks. There might be more. D.C.’s streets were incredibly clogged with traffic fleeing the Capitol area. I was especially glad to be on a motorcycle. At supper that evening at a rooftop restaurant, we could see smoke from the Pentagon. The next morning, September 12th, I photographed the Lincoln Memorial uniquely deserted. No tourists. No joggers turning around. Just one janitor pushing a broom along a lower stair. Surrounded by hordes of troops and cops.
Much of the world, including Muslims, was appalled. The U.S. would find and punish those responsible. The world sympathized. But the Bush Administration used 9/11 to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq. (Saddam Hussein was a colossal jerk, but no lover of Al-Qaeda, which loathed secular leaders such as Saddam.) This was a huge gift to Islamic militants, whose rhetoric about the U.S. wanting to kill Muslims was sounding hollow, until the U.S. started doing just that.
Twenty years. As we mourn those who died September 11th, and in those wars, and again thank the people of Gander, we must strive for enhanced international understanding.
The world is not descending into some apocalyptic battle between Muslims and Christians, or between Good and Evil.
But in too much of our world there’s an important struggle between the people who are curious, open, tolerant, and reluctant to judge others and the convinced, close-minded, incurious folks who rarely welcome change. I’m interested in what you believe, feeling no need to convert you to my spiritual ideas or be converted to yours. But if you are excluding, harassing, even killing others because of your beliefs, you’re wrong not only in my eyes but to most of those who follow the faith you are abusing. That’s true of the vicious and deluded members of ISIS – and folks who would kill doctors who perform abortions or punish women for ending pregnancies.
Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad all saw the injustice, poverty, corruption, and sickness around them, and saw priests and leaders using others’ religious faith to further their own personal ambitions. Each articulated a new set of principles meant to improve the world, each spent time in solitary contemplation, and each gathered a small band of followers to spread the word and was persecuted by the authorities for that. Each tried to live as he preached. The words of each were taken to heart by many; but, eventually, religious empires called churches, mosques, or temples were founded on their words.
Jesus neither enslaved nor killed anyone, and never mentioned abortion, but His words have been used to justify wars and slavery, and harassing women for their personal choices. Muhammad taught equality of men and women as a basis for spirituality, and tried to improve women’s lot. (Female infanticide was common then, and he abolished it.) Born poor, and orphaned young, Muhammad understood poverty and social exclusion. His words are as irrelevant to harassing women as Jesus’s are to forbidding birth control.
I don’t say we do not face danger from extremist Islamic terrorists. We do. We also face danger from extremist “Christian” and “patriot” terrorists, who trample on Christian spirit and espouse conditional patriotism: they love the country they would like ours to be, although not the freedom, equality, and diversity that makes us.
We have a wonderful country to protect.