The Attack
I talk about religion and how it’s affected my life and beliefs in Jack in the Box, in the chapter called The Belief. But the recent anniversary of Sept. 11 made me ponder the implications of religious extremists on society.
We tend to judge others based on appearance, rather than on character, even though it’s not what we are taught to do by our various faiths. Increasingly, some people believe that, as Americans, we are supposed to believe and look a certain way and be required to speak English. In those people’s minds, you should also be a Christian and have light-colored skin, vote a certain way, and hate people that don’t think or believe the way they do.
Doesn’t that attitude define pure ignorance? It’s ignorance of American history and ignorance of American government, for starters. Do they even have any concept as to how America came to be?
Christian extremists in this country are much more visible and vocal than ever before; they parade their prejudices in full view of the public, claiming “freedom of speech” and “freedom of religion” give them the right to express whatever outrageous practices and pronouncements they want to engage in. They even feel justified in enacting legislation that restricts women’s autonomy over their own bodies, in essence declaring a “holy war” on the female population. They label those who practice religions other than their own as “bad” or “evil” or, at best, “wrong.” Using the Bible as well as the flag as their symbols of superiority, these radicals maintain that Americans live in a Christian nation and that all laws should be held up to a test of morality and ethics as they define these terms. So, are our radicals here any different than the radicals abroad we see on the news?
Why do we point the finger at other religions as somehow being the work of the devil, when many of us right here in the good old USA act just like the very people we condemn? We stereotype and discriminate based on the color of a person’s skin, the way they look, and what they wear. We feel justified in our actions because these “others” don’t look like us; they look weird and strange. They’re not one of us! It’s us vs. them, and we don’t like THEM! We see them outside the circle of our subjective truth, where the so-called terms of our religious engagement no longer apply. We label them terrorists because they worship another religion and wear a hijab or a yarmulke.
After 9/11 Americans of Middle Eastern descent – or those who looked like they might be – were profiled, received threats of violence and hate mail, harassed and intimidated, and still do today 20 years later. Is that what our faith teaches us?
So, how are we different from them? Why do we consider ourselves better?
Many people say that the 9/11 attacks on New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania were simply the work of crazy people, extremists from other countries and other religious ideologies. But, come to think of it, couldn’t you say that about ALL acts of religious violence, going back thousands of years? When armies invaded other countries, didn’t they claim it as the “will of God?” Didn’t they wholeheartedly believe God was on their side?
During the Crusades, didn’t the pope, acting in his capacity as the leader of a major Christian faith, call on his followers to take up arms against those he believed were a threat to the Christian God? In the first Crusade, he declared war against Muslims to claim the Holy Land, with a cry of “Deus le volt” or “God wills it!” It became a war against other religious faiths that went on for nearly two centuries! Frankly put, the Catholic pope felt threatened by the increasing political power of the Muslims and Jews, who were often forced to choose between conversion to Christianity and death as the Crusades went on. By the end of the various Crusades, between one and nine million were dead, depending on what historian you believe. Was the pope “crazy?” Was he an extremist?
Truth be told, aren’t ALL wars about power, control, ego, money, territory, or revenge? Wasn’t that what the 9/11 attacks were all about? Osama Bin Laden claimed to be fighting a jihad or holy war, just as the pope did with the Crusades. Can this violence and revenge truly be work on behalf of a benevolent and just “God?”
So many innocent people experienced loss, pain, and suffering as a result of the 9/11 attacks: husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, girlfriends, boyfriends, good friends, co-workers! Their lives will never be the same. Just think how people died that day – 2,977 souls to be exact – solely for another’s hatred and revenge. People of every nationality and religious affiliation – most of them Americans, even though they may not have been born in this country – fled for their lives when the towers began to collapse.
On the other side of the world, however, people of a different religious affiliation rejoiced after hearing the news, thanking Allah for helping them succeed in their mission to destroy the infidels, as Americans were labeled. Ironically, those “infidels” consisted of people of various religions from more than 90 nations around the world.
In a video released sometime after the attack, Bin Laden is seen smiling and gloating over his accomplishment, with a sheik saying, “Allah be praised,” several times during their conversation. Bin Laden went on to mention that he heard that someone on Islamic radio who owns a school in America say, “We don’t have time to keep up with the demands of those who are asking about Islamic books to learn about Islam.” He then stated how the attack benefitted Islam “greatly!”
So, whose holy war is right and righteous, and whose is just ritualized insanity? Whose religion is “right?” Whose war is justified?
In the long run, is this just a competition to claim the rights to “God?” “My God is better than your God?” Bottom line: I believe it’s simply a case of self-righteousness and the delusional nature of the human ego, all selling ideologies that are as generic as the word “God.”