“Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.” Prov. 16:22
Ever wonder why al-Qaeda is so upset with us and why they resort to suicide tactics to get our attention. President Bush has said it is because they hate our freedom. That has always seemed stupid to me. So what if we are free. Why would that bother them? And why pick on us? If you are so upset about people who live in democracies, why not pick some smaller and easier to beat country like maybe Italy or the Pacific island of Niue?
As with a lot of things, if you just dig a little bit past the spin, it isn’t very difficult to find out. Just before the presidential election of 2004, bin Laden himself said that he wasn’t mad at the US people, he was fighting against our government’s policies. He just wanted US forces out of Muslim countries.
He has at other times said that he wants to overthrow the autocratic dynasties of the Persian Gulf region, along with other secular and pro-Western regimes of the Middle East. Finally he has also been identified with the grand radical Islamic vision of re-establishing Muslim world dominance which certainly implies some sort of confrontation with the west.
That isn’t to say that they don’t understand the west. They understand us better than you may think. The reason they use terrorism is because they respect democracy. They trust that our government ultimately responds to the will of our people. I think that it is naive to assume that bin Laden would be satisfied if we left Iraq, or even the Middle East; but I’ll leave a discussion of how to deal with bin Laden to another post. This post is more about understanding.
The reason some Muslim’s blow themselves up is because they believe in martyrdom as a pious way to oppose an oppressive regime. Similar traditions of self sacrifice exist in many religions, though this admittedly includes blowing up other people too. Self-sacrifice as a concept is something that our culture celebrates when we agree with the cause. When we don’t, we just don’t get it. I’m sure the Romans were similarly perplexed when the early Christians refused to defend themselves as they were about to become kitty chow.
What fundamentalist Muslims are most disturbed about is a bit of cognitive dissonance that may be difficult for us to completely understand. Much like Biblical Jews and some fundamentalist Christians, they believe that God will bless the devout with economic and political success. When they look around, they don’t see that success. In fact, they see very much the opposite. All of the success is in the west. Wealth and power appear to be concentrated in decadent countries where there are very few Muslims. Rather than evaluate how they may have limited themselves by excluding women, resisting modernization, and opposing education; they have blamed the west. They see a vast conspiracy to erode basic Muslim practices, corrupt Muslim values, and further weaken what otherwise should be the dominant religious and political movement in the world.
This might seem a wacky set of beliefs to some. But so is creationism, the claim that our founding fathers were all evangelical Christians, and the belief that ignorance and abstinence are effective forms of birth control.
There is also the claim that the suicide bombers are poor, uneducated, or mentally incompetent. There have been some of those, but the majority are young idealistic well educated men from middle class families. They want to make a difference in the world. They are encouraged by radical clerics to strike back in the only way that they feel can accurately convey both their anger and frustration. They blow themselves up in acts of political terrorism in the sincere hope that western democracies will wake up and take notice. What they fail to understand about western democracy is that we don’t care about them. Rather than ask why, we are content to accept that they are crazy, so we had better shoot them before they multiply.
Some might say that it is soft-headed to try to understand people who are trying to kill us. I think that if you are going to call yourself a Christian, you can’t do any less. Jesus didn’t ever say this was going to be easy, but He did promise a reward for those who were willing to try.
“I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:” Matt 5:43-44
Jeff, was just watching the morning news. There is going to be a documentary “Friends of God” airing on HBO. Nancy Pelosi’s grand daughter is the director. She already covered two governmental documentaries and thought she would look at religion. Haggard wasn’t a fallen man when she did it and was her tour guide. She came away from it a little surprised. She couldn’t believe how organized they really are. Talk about politics and religion. They are probably procreating more than any other religion in the U.S. for obvious reasons. They go to church all the time but afterward when many churches have bible study they go over politics. What bills are coming up, what’s on the government’s agenda and discuss what they will do to either back or oppose the bills. This is beyond religious dalliance into politics. Falwell stated the Evangelicals were the largest minority voting block. If they keep procreating like they brag about, they will soon surpass that and we no longer have any type of freedom in this country. They will either support or block all kinds of legislation. Example: Falwell went on to say Kerry found out about us, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton will find out about us in 2008. Was that a prediction? This is bad news as far as separating religion and politics. I think everyone should watch this documentary to get enlightened or we’re going back to the early colonist days. Which reminds me of he best bumper sticker I’ve seen. It says: “The last time we mixed religion and politics, people were burned at the stake!”
Ria,
Thanks for the tip on the documentary.
It is interested that you post this as a response to Understanding our Enemy. I think that in any democracy, you have to be concerned about anyone who is going to vote based on what someone else says they should do rather than developing their own opinions. One of Bill Clinton’s famous lines is “when the voters think, we win”.
That’s what I see as the real danger of the blurred line between religion and politics. People in the congregation are inclined to trust a pastor’s opinions on politics because they trust his/her opinions on religion. I think that our founding fathers were very wise in creating a government separate from religion. Yet I have sat through presentations in some of our local churches where guest pulpit speakers have attempted to build the case that the separation of church and state was a recent invention of activist judges.
As I cover in a previous post, it appears that some in the Evangelical movement ARE thinking that their political objectives need to be much broader in order to be better aligned with their spiritual objectives (love God and love your neighbor as yourself). Perhaps as a result, we are seeing significant movement to the center from both the right and the left. But the conservative social agenda is still very powerful and remains vulnerable to the sort of manipulation we’ve seen over the past six years.
Jeff
And that manipulation is no different than the muslim fundamentalist’s manipulation of their following. Radical muslims manipulate to have their faithful commit suicide and kill the enemy in order to attain their goal for Allah and themselves. Evangelicals manipulate to have their faithful vote en mass to attain their goals for God and themselves. Neither gives any consideration to anyone else outside of their own circle.
Ria,
Thanks for your toughts.
Was it ever thus.
Jesus ran into it with those who felt that healing on the Sabbath was the wrong thing to do.
Jeff
Jeff;
There is a great BBC documentry entitled “Execution of a Teenage Girl” about the execution of a 16 yr old girl in Nevba, Iran. Until I watched this (on Google video) I had thought that public execution in Iran was a thing of the past – how stupid of me.
To me this examination of how intertwined “Islamic Law” and the ruling government has becoming and I fear will continue and expand throughout the middle east is, in my opinion, a warning. Is it really a good idea to mix religion and law? I don’t mean the mixing in the context of helping to guide principals, I mean the mixing in the respect of – Religious Courts?
This, to me, helps define our external enemy. Our, internal enemy – sadly, many seem to think building our own legal system around there ideal of a christain faith will cure everything.
Will,
You got that right. We view strict enforcement of sharia law as barbaric and extreme. Yet we have no problem with a capital punishment policy that most of the rest of the industrialized world feels is just as arbitrary and bloodthirsty.
There is an active lobby in this country to impose fundamentalist Christian views on laws affecting marriage, birth control, and science. But when it comes to “Thou Shalt Not Kill”, these same Christians seem much more comfortable with “An Eye for an Eye”, even though Jesus specifically addressed this self-righteous hard-heartedness in his “love thine enemy” directive.
I’ve been thinking about how we as a Christian, western democracy can respond to the Wahabbist Muslims who make up the bulk of the al-Qaeda movement. When I get those thoughts sorted out, you’ll probably see another post on this subject.
Jeff
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.”
I forget who actually said that, but the biblical-lamb reference is sticking in my mind after reading these posts. There isn’t an Islamist on this planet who “hates” the United States (government) because we get to “democratically” elect our representatives from the preapproved list of “candidates” – they “hate” us because of our government’s actions the world over. Of course we the sheeple don’t get to read about all the forays of our armed forces and other governmental agencies, but rest assured that the rest of the world is well aware of those actions of “ours”. To confuse Christian belief-systems with those of our government is also displaced – what our government reaps is what our government has sown. If we were all privy to the secrets coming out of Washington, District of Columbia, we would be appalled as well.
And please don’t look for guidance from from king james or any other man regarding man’s end times, or copy/paste such nonsense onto such important topics as this, we might confuse our brothers-in-Christ into incorrect actions…
Erich,
I’m starting to get a better picture of your beliefs here, but I’d rather not jump to an inaccurate conclusion.
I think that we can both agree that our governments policies in the Middle East (our support of Israel, our invasion of Iraq, and our military bases in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries) are what radical fundamentalist Muslims object to. Terrorism is one of their most effective tactics to pressure our government to change that policy because they understand that in democracies the government will eventually reflect the will of the people.
Beyond that, it sounds as though you have some issues with the belief systems of some Christian faiths and the influence that they may have on our government. Frankly I do too, but perhaps not in the same way that you do.
The whole purpose of this blog is to address these issues from the perspective of one who DOES believe that the Bible is an effective guide to life and (by implication) politics. My political views are decidedly more liberal than many of my conservative Christian brothers, but we also share some very basic beliefs about God and His Christ.
I don’t expect you to share those beliefs any more than I would expect bin Laden to convert from Islam. Your choice of beliefs is up to you. But just as you have a right to believe whatever you choose, I do too. And just as your beliefs influence your political views, mine do too.
I write about them to encourage this sort of dialog because I find it interesting.
I look forward to learning more about your view of the world.
Jeff