It’s easy to be angry in the aftermath of such a senseless
attack on humanity. A handful of extremists perpetrated the wholesale slaughter
of so many innocent people. That should
make you angry. But who, specifically, are you angry with? Is it possible that
emotion overtakes you and as it spills over, you have to find a place and
direction for those feelings? Maybe. But the seeds have long been planted. For
most of us, it was 9/11. If you’re a bit older, perhaps it started with Beirut
in 1983 or with the Iran hostage crisis. Could we even place the beginnings of
western views and mistrust with Islam as far back as the Ottomans or the
Crusades? Sure. But I want to make an argument for Islam and how it might not
have as much to do with ISIS or the attacks in Paris as one may think.
First, let me say that I have known many Muslim Americans at
this point. Most of them were students. I’ve known some of their parents. I’ve
known others more casually through work or acquaintance. And if I’m being
honest, other than the fact that their faith comprises a tiny minority of the
overall American aggregate, all of them were quite like anyone else. But
Americans unfortunately have a different mental image of Muslims. When most of
our citizens conjure images of Muslims, we think of people within a Middle
Eastern setting. We think of dust and hollowed-out buildings. We think of a
city-wide call to prayer from the nearest mosque and men selling fruits in the
market. We think of veiled women herding around their children with their heads
hung in subjugation. This might not totally be incorrect in a lot of places in
the Middle East. But it’s also not totally accurate. It all depends on where
we’re talking about. Yet, we default to the description I just gave because
that’s how we always see it in the movies or in TV shows. And those shows are
almost always about bad-ass US troops kicking some jihadist ass. Right off the
bat, Americans are force-fed a set of images that further push the common,
average Muslim into a category that is somehow lesser than ourselves. That they
all come from backwardness where evil always seems to loom around the corner.
This is despite the fact that your neighbor or coworker who is Muslim isn’t
anything close to that. They just go to work, provide for their families, go to
school, and live their lives like anyone else. And yet you lump them in with
terrorists.
There is a distinct difference between the American Muslim
and perhaps the Muslim who lives in somewhere like Yemen or Saudi Arabia. While
some of this has to do with religion, I think the think we often overlook is
the influence of culture. Western culture is overwhelmingly Christian. If you
really want to compare the holy books of Christians and Muslims, you’re going
to get a lot of similarities. They come from the same basic region and over the
span of history, aren’t really separated by much time. They each reflect
popular culture of ancient times, along with punishments for breaking social
norms. You can find that stoning someone to death is okay according to both the Qu’ran and the Bible. But we
don’t stone people in the west. We have disregarded that ideology while
clinging to the more positive core beliefs of our religions. Of course, I’m
mostly talking about Christianity. But if you look closely, you’ll find this
also in most Muslim Americans. I especially see it among my students who were
born here. A lot of the girls aren’t even required to wear the hijab (head
scarf) by their parents and are allowed to go to school where they congregate
with boys. Their parents know that this is the cultural standard here. In this,
American culture has shaped the practice of their religion without diluting the
positive aspects of it. I’ve never had a student have to step out of class to
pray in the middle of the day. They do it when they get home. Again, our
culture shapes the way they practice. We have to understand that the Middle
East is different. They have had very limited exposure to western culture
before a few decades ago, and it’s largely limited even today. Slowly, western
standards have seeped in, and this is part of why groups like al-Qaeda have a
problem with Westerners. But even within the Middle East, you’ll find different
cultural standards that regard women, marriage, etc., depending on what country
or what region you visit. The fact that Jordanian women have far more freedoms
than Saudi women tells me that this isn’t so much about Islam as it is about
cultural standards.
You see, every religion in the world has, at some point in
time, been used to control others. Slavery in the southern US was a cultural
and economic standard. Yet, to justify the obvious evil in owning another human
being, many southern Christians turned to the Bible. They twisted and contorted
what the scripture actually said to fit their needs, justify their actions, and
keep their slaves subservient. Spanish Catholics during the Renaissance were
intolerant of Jews. The justification for torturing or expelling them was
religion. Medieval Christians wanted to regain control over the Palestine.
Religion became the excuse and catalyst to attack in that region. People go to
war to control a territory and its resources. They go to war for selfish
reasons. They just need an excuse.
And this brings us to ISIS. Leadership in ISIS wants to
consolidate all Muslims in the world under one caliphate. This isn’t dissimilar
from Nazi ideology in consolidating all Germanic territories and people. They
want to establish an “Islamic State”. This is political in nature. Islam ends
up being an excuse to do so and a method of recruitment. Reports from people
who have defected or escaped from ISIS overwhelmingly testify that ISIS
leadership is highly hypocritical. They don’t at all practice what they preach.
They are bent on domination and territorial gain. But they recruit on a basis
of jihadism. They prey upon a young, impressionable Muslim man—one who may have
lost family in a drone strike; who may be upset with Americans. And all the
recruiter has to tell that kid is that this is the kind of attack on his faith
and way of life that the Qu’ran speaks of, and that it’s his duty to defend it
(even though most Muslims know better than this). And just like that, you have
a radicalized ISIS fighter. What you’re left with is an ISIS leadership with a
political goal and a fighting force who believe they are fighting a holy war.
Sounds a lot like the Crusdades, actually. You want to take over a territory,
and all the Pope has to do is tell the peasants that they can go directly to
Heaven if they die for God, and you have a religiously-charged army fighting
for a self-serving political entity.
But in the end, it has little to do with Islam. Islam isn’t
the problem. Islam is the excuse. It’s a manipulation tool. People can be bad. Be upset with the
people. Be upset with ISIS. Be upset with terrorists and their tactics. But
this does not provide free license to hate everyone who practices the religion.
That’s wrong. And do not tolerate it.