A strand of intolerance that can be straightened is referenced in a quote from Feisal Abdul Rauf , the Egyptian born Sufi Imam in New York City who militates for understanding among religions: “The truth is that killing innocent people is always wrong-and no argument or excuse, no matter how deeply believed, can ever make it right.” Most rational people agree but the crux of the statement resides in two words: INNOCENT and PEOPLE.
The tools of faith, mis-information, economics and militarism are all applied to dehumanize and criminalize a perceived enemy. Nazi propaganda films equate the Jews with rats streaming from a sewer, we fought the “yellow peril” and defined the black person as three fifths human. The rapists and murderers are streaming across our southern border…in short, our enemies are sub-human and inherently guilty and deserving of extermination.
Marginalization and stigmatizing seem to come naturally to humans. Islamic, white supremacist, crusaders, all make this dehumanization and punishment an auto da fe…an act of faith. People unlike ourselves are rapidly perceived as threatening, criminal and a “cancer on the body of the state.”
We co-opt spiritual messages to justify the process of stigmatizing. Jihad can be defined as a struggle that is spiritual, interior and central to the growth of the individual person or transmogrified into the idea of a struggle against the “infidel.” Christian Crusaders can kill all muslims while using the slogan Deo Volente – God wills it.
The antidote to this poison is individual contact with the other. In contact with Irishmen, Blacks, Jews, Latinos, Muslims, these hatreds are hard to sustain. My Arab driver is a nice guy. The Irish butcher gave me a far weight That black guy helped me change a tire….the more contact we have, the more humanity we see.
When we militarize our generalities genocide is possible.
Perhaps the hope in the Middle East rises from the geography. The area is small and contact with “the other” is certain. Integration of peoples -without stigma or violence- may come from the aggrandizement of millions of personal relationships between individual people as they go about the business of living.
As we travelled in Israel, Jordan and Egypt, we saw these interactions everywhere. In spite of all the political posturing and nonsense, Arabs and Jews have a common experience and a common fate. The unaccounted for factor is what each People sees as JUSTICE. Thereby hangs the tale.
Olio Folio 