Winthrop E Sullivan III
The recent tragedy in San Bernardino has made all of us that much more aware of terrorism in general and ISIS in particular, as their adherents wreck more and more death and destruction in the name of their hateful ideology. ISIS is using the Internet and social media very effectively in promoting and expanding their poisonous message. But how should we react to this?
President Obama delivered an important message on the tragedy and made some announcements on what we are doing to combat these extremists. He also talked about what we shouldn’t do, and I think that these were among the most important points that he made. He stressed that we should not react by persecuting Muslims, because the vast majority are decent people that abhor what ISIS is saying and doing, probably even more then non-Muslims do.
But how would you feel as a Christian if there was a group that says that to be a good Christian, you have to kill people that don’t believe in what Christianity preaches? If they were actually carrying out this ideology as ISIS is, would you silently support it or would you be angry that they are equating their distorted views with your religion? How would you feel if people discriminated against you for being a Christian because of the actions of these people? Would you think that to be fair? Would it make you more or less likely to support their efforts to stop these hypothetical Christian terrorists, if they treated you as a suspect just because you are also Christian?
As Ghandi said, the practice of an “eye for an eye” just “makes the whole world blind”. By persecuting and discriminating against Muslims we play right into the hands of ISIS – recruiting becomes easier for them especially with people on the margins. ISIS might want to use their internet / social media chops to promote the election of Donald Trump for President, because his reaction to all of this is exactly the reaction that they want from us. They want us to react to their hate with our own – it proves the point that they are trying to make about us – that we hate them. All we need are a bunch of gun toting, trigger happy, Muslim haters to turn this into a full scale religious war where many more innocent people will die.
When similar disturbances broke out in India during Ghandi’s lifetime, he could by the significance of his person and his message of freedom and justice for all Indians, regardless of faith, stop the madness by going on a hunger strike. He once said that the cause of freedom and justice was a cause that he would be willing to die for, but there was no cause that he would be willing to kill for. Ghandi was more powerful than the British Empire and proved it by leading his country to independence without armed struggle.
If we ostracize and persecute all Muslims because of the actions of a few, getting cooperation from the rest will be much harder. So turning the other cheek makes more sense both morally and tactically. What would Jesus do? Exactly what Mr. Ghandi would do, but Ghandi was Hindu not Christian. See my point? Christianity does not have a monopoly on tolerance, human decency and moral values. Neither does Islam own the patent on bigotry, brutality and senseless violence. To make this a war between these religions is exactly what ISIS wants to do. We need to focus our efforts on them, not on Islam.
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