Work to understand each other

The events of these past days have kindled memories of Pearl Harbor and even the War of 1812, the last time this continent was attacked by a foreign power. The images of wanton destruction of properties and the cold-blooded murder of thousands of our fellow citizens will forever contribute to our national identity. The fear, rage and determination of people to seek revenge reflect basic human survival instincts – instincts that undoubtedly played a major role in the evolution of humanity itself.

And therein lies the challenge for us in this our time of testing. Passions stirred; reason blurred. Consequently, we are by natural inclination exposed to the risk of responding with the very kind of behavior we rightly condemn.

This is the situation and risk in which we find ourselves. Through the cacophony of inevitable and understandable emotions, we must hear those other voices within us calling us to our more noble selves. And that requires us to understand those whom we quickly classify as the destroyers, the enemy. Making certain we rightly identify them will in part determine whether this nation is able to demonstrate greatness that surpasses its military and economic powers.

It is probably the case that most of us overlook the fact that Judaism, Christianity and Islam share common roots. These are often referenced as religions of the book. Christians and Muslims together claim a great deal of the Hebraic tradition as the roots of their respective faiths. Islam recognized and honors Jesus as a great prophet and claims as valid so many of the teachings of the New Testament. It is a religion established by Muhammad, regarded by believers as the Seal of the Prophets, that is, the final voice in a line of prophets that extends from Adam to Muhammad himself. Islam requires that one confess Allah (the God) as God, give alms, pray, fast, and make a sacred trip to Mecca. The founder’s vision was to provide a basis for identity and unity of a people with powerful tribal diversities. He created a vision of the brotherhood of all Arabs. His teachings stress concern for the poor (thus fasting and alms-giving).

Unlike Christianity, Islam is a political religion. For a large number of Muslims, Allah is or should be regarded as the head of the state. This gives the body politic a religious sanction and is the basis for the often-referenced emphasis on jihad, or holy war – a fighting against all non-Muslims (infidels) for the spreading of Islam. This is why one’s sacrifice of self in such a cause is rewarded with immediate access to paradise. Not all Muslims today are of this persuasion. Indeed, like so many religions, Islam has several different traditions or schools, some very conservative and others very “liberal.”

Christianity, as the only non-political religion of the three “religions of the book,” holds fast to the sanctity of all life as the creation and gift of God. Therefore, there is no basis for the teaching of suicide as we saw in those who hijacked and crashed the four commercial airplanes. Sharing with Islam a holy disdain for idolatry, Christianity sees that idolatry alive in making absolute any state, any human, and doctrine. Nor do many Christians believe that they gain access to heaven by anything they can do. It is a gift of God’s grace.

While we recognize the common roots in the three religions born in the Middle East, there are also profound differences. And we desperately need now to understand each other – our shared heritage and our important distinctions.

Such understanding needs also to be supplemented by our efforts to see ourselves through the eyes of the Muslim world. In my conversations with many Muslims in both Egypt, Israel, and Palestine, I detected a fear of globalization, that is, the sweeping powers of capitalism and democracy (the essence of modern Western culture) in ways that threaten to eradicate the very identity of these individuals as a people, as different nations. While some would like to share in the good fruits of capitalism, they recoil at the images of a consumerism and materialism so often portrayed in such media as film and TV as producing immorality and irresponsibility. It is the culture of the West, supported by both economic and military advantage, that is seen as sweeping over them. And they are made to feel powerless to stop it. Threatened people are people afraid. Fear easily breeds dislike and, in the extreme, a hatred that lashes out in acts of terrorism.

Nor can we overlook the perception of so many Muslim Arabs that our support of Israel is but on blind loyalty that cannot or will not see what misery is inflicted on Arabs by the policies of Israel – as defensible as such policies are in the eyes of many Israelis. The greatest and wealthiest power on earth is perceived as indifferent or opposed to countless thousands of marginalized Arabs. Add to this the consequences for many innocent Arab Muslims of our country’s punishment of Saddam Hussein and you have the makings of distrust, hurt and resentment.

In spite of all the circumstances suggested by this analysis, the vast, vast majority of Arab Muslims are not out to do America in. The majority, I honestly believe, do not want us to identify them by the militant extremists in their midst anymore than any of us would want to be defined as Americans and/or Christians by those militant extremists in our own midst – extremists who destroy abortion clinics, murder doctors who work in such clinics, bomb a federal building, burn churches of African Americans, and/or brutally torture and kill gays. Militant extremists are not unique to the Muslim world. They are in every political body, in every society, and are a part of every culture.

We are told that on Sept. 11, 2001 “began the first war of the 21st century,” one that our president indicates will be fought differently because the enemy is different from the enemies of previous centuries. This could also mean that America’s greatness will be measured differently. An ability to focus our military responses on the terrorists themselves, as well as on those who aid and abet them, and not on their race, religion, or their countries will require unprecedented sophistication in both our intelligence agencies and our weapons. And we will have to evidence uncommon restraint, uncommon ability to reason, uncommon humility lest we do on impulse what we must condemn by reason. In this way, we will be great people because of our compassion for the millions of Arabs who want peace, seek justice, who want to be good neighbors, who would covet us as allies in their struggles for justice and for the benefits of the modern world without some of its liabilities.

We – Jews, Christians, Muslims – share a common repository of traditions embodying the faith of our progenitors. That commonality must now be tapped to unite people of faith in the determination to expel from our midst the demons that reside in militant extremism, whatever its form. Leading the world toward such a goal will surely reveal to this global village our nation’s new greatness for these new times. And we can help in that quest right now by ridding ourselves of the prejudice, ignorance, distrust and hatred that nurture the demon of extremism ever lurking in each of us.

Oscar E. Remick is the academic dean of the Bangor Theological Seminary and is a part-time professor at the University of Maine.