Some Muslim Advice for Christians, Jews and Islamophobes Too

by Dr. David Liepert

First off, as the tenth dark anniversary of 9/11/01 approaches, it is not my intention to make any Jew feel more responsible for Israel’s behavior in the Occupied Territories, or to make either Christians or Islamophobes feel more responsible for Norway’s recent catastrophe at the hands of alleged mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

Because God knows, none of us like to see our heartfelt convictions, that we believe can help make us better people and the world around us a better place for all, instead twisted into the semblance of something evil. But at least now you know how the vast majority of Muslims felt about Osama bin Laden.

But while your understandable tendency has been –-at least so far and for the most part—to try and distance yourselves from those abuses of your own faith traditions, I honestly don’t think that’s your best response, and I’ll tell you why. Because in retrospect, while the horrific attack by criminal Muslim extremists that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001 has brought tragic consequences, death and destruction and suffering throughout the Muslim world, it was actually good for the religion of Islam.

Now don’t get me wrong! I don’t believe for an instant that the vile ideology Osama bin Laden brought was good for my religion. And like all Muslims I grieve for the hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims tragically slain as a consequence of America’s horrid and harried over-response, incredibly costly in both dollars and lives.

But I do acknowledge that the ensuing decade of accusatory scrutiny has given Muslim leaders and believers alike an unparalleled opportunity to reject the basis of those teachings and eject them from the mainstream, and refined and energized our battle against religious extremism to the extent that both Interpol and the FBI now acknowledge the diminished threat of Muslim terrorism throughout the world.

You see, the unfortunate truth Muslims had to come to terms with was this: there is little question that bin Laden’s ideology found root in the broad rhetorical and ideological range of pre-9-11 Islamic teaching. My own wife still recalls the sweet old Imam in Edmonton Alberta, home of Canada’s oldest Mosque, exhorting Muslims to “be ready to fight, be ready to attack”.

The fact he meant fighting against Satan, and never intended his words to be used by radical extremists to exhort murder proved to be a poor excuse when we were all faced with just that, radical extremists using those words to exhort murder. Since then, like Muslim leaders around the world, Canada’s Imams for instance have found a way to starve such extremist abuses of ignorant Muslim support, by promoting a better and more “Muhammad centered” sort of Islam.

But is it possible that Norway’s recent tragedy, which on a deaths per capita basis exceeds the size of America’s 9/11 tragedy by a factor of two, might serve the Christian Church the same way? And while we’re at it, since innocent Gazan lives lost per capita during Israel’s horrific “Operation Cast Lead” assault beggars Norwegian casualties by a factor of two yet again, could all these shared tragedies perhaps lead to some very much needed self-reflection for our Jewish brothers and sisters in faith as well?

Because while we’ve all been focusing on Osama, there’s been a lot of dangerous Christian precedents set, from Don Rumsfeld’s using Bible verses to exhort his war plans to President Bush, on through President Bush’s apparent belief he was fighting the beginnings of the Christian Armageddon, , all the way to US Generals declaring their war-making God-ordained, and even US Defense Contractors carving Bible verses into their rifle-butts.

And despite how much they fly in the face of Jesus’ example, those abuses of his legacy have gone virtually un-challenged by the Christian mainstream, because they’ve been so focused on dealing with Muslim radicals. That’s despite the fact that, at least according to Christians living in Palestine, which is arguably the front-line of inter-religious conflict, the problem isn’t so much the Muslim radicals. Instead, it’s Israel’s Occupation, and Christians in other countries taking Israel’s side, instead of sticking up for what’s right and just, and while they’re at it sticking up for Palestinian Christians!

Interestingly enough compared to Christianity, on the score of dealing with racists and radicals within their own religion, Israel, Judaism’s declared home, has actually done somewhat better than America has. It’s quite heartening to see, that despite their disappointing human rights record towards Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, Israel recently took the important step of arresting Jewish Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, for inciting anti-Muslim and anti-Christian hate. However, despite Dov Lior’s incarceration, objective Jewish sources in Israel and around the world confirm that violent, and often paradoxically anti-Semitic racism, perpetrated in Israel by Israelis, is on the rise.

But I hope that America soon follows suit with Israel, because in the US Evangelical leaders tacit support or even outright encouragement for wholesale Muslim slaughter continues, with little or no debate over whether that actually follows the teachings of the Christ.

Frankly, it’s getting crazy out there. I recently had an Evangelical Pastor on my podcast, “The Optimistic Muslim”, whose pronouncements on “Just War” sounded to me just like Afghanistan’s Blind Imam justifying Jihad. And that really highlights a problem I think I see, one that Muslims, Christians, Jews and Islamophobes share. Because believers believing what they believe in order to rationalize self-serving behaviors even children know are wrong is something that plagues us all.

Thankfully, that’s a battle we seem to be winning in Islam, although God knows what tomorrow might bring.  But the thing is, we’re only winning because we have been forced to acknowledge the fault within ourselves. In response, Muslim leaders and grass-roots Muslims around the world together have begun reclaiming Islam from the radicals, re-affirming the path to egalitarian peace that the first Muslims walked, and calling the extremists back to the Islam Muhammad intended from there.

No thanks to those out there who continue to pretend the religion itself needs to be revised, but those of you who forced us to face what our religion had become in the hands of Osama helped us find our own path, once again.

But now, I think it’s time for our Christian, Jewish and other Islamophobic kin to get your heads out of the sand, because you have been radicalized too, seeking and even glorifying conflict to satisfy a juvenilely black-and-white worldview. Muslim prophecy predicted demon-hearted, Arabic speaking and Arab-skinned men would one day come to tempt the “faithful” to the gates of hell, a Qur’anic phrase that connotes peoples in conflict. And I suspect that more than just tempting the Muslim “Faithful”, Osama and his minions fully intended to achieve the world we live in today, by tempting the “Faithful” of other faiths as well.

The idea that we are all engaged in a “clash of civilizations” is nothing more than a self-fulfilling false prophecy promoted by radicals of every side, solely to manipulate true believers to the benefit of the ideologues themselves. And looking at the way you’ve all changed over the last decade, and at the way America has changed over the last decade, I think it’s obvious that fear of radicals from other religions is the most religiously radicalizing thing of all.

None of our religions are radicalizing, if you use them for what they’re meant for. If you actually study Islam to find peace as Muslims are commanded to do, you’ll see Muhammad aimed at a society that incorporated many faiths and many religions, designed to promote egalitarian justice for all. And if you actually study the Bible for the same purpose, you’ll find out that the same things hold true for Jesus’ Christianity, and Moses and Abraham’s Judaism as well.

That’s why I’m still hopeful, despite the growing waves of fear and outright hatred that have led so many of us away from the paths to peace to which our faiths call us. Because those paths are there unchanging, our founder’s examples remain unblemished, and the One who made us all has promised He intends peace for everyone. If you want proof, read my book.  Because despite all the criticism he’s endured in Christian circles, Rob Bell’s got it right too: In the end, Love Wins.

Because the simple truth is, that if we’re all on God’s side, then we’re all on each other’s side too. And if you’re not living that way, it might be a good idea to ask yourself who’s side your really on.

Dr. Liepert is the author of Muslim, Christian, and Jew: Finding a Path to Peace Our Faiths Can Share.  Dr. Liepert also has a blog on the Huffington Post.  Follow Dr. David Liepert on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrDavidLiepert