Seeking Common Ground

“Obama Defends Islam, Slams Christianity at Prayer Breakfast.” The religio-political firestorm unleashed by the president’s reference to the Crusades and slavery in his remarks on ISIS last week is the latest example of how we intentionally misunderstand each other and lash out without listening. I’d like this blog to be a commons, however small, in which we listen to other voices – not judging them, not dismissing them, simply trying to understand them. In my next two posts, I print a response to last week’s blog on French Prime Minister Manuel Valls’ speech on terrorism. It came from a friend, a nurse practitioner who has spent her life working on women’s health issues in Africa. As she grapples with the violence, both in the Middle East and America, she offers a different perspective. May we take her words seriously, and may they challenge us. I just went to see “Timbuktu” by Abderrahmane Sissako yesterday evening; it has been nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film. I can’t say that I “liked” it – it is a hard film to watch, but it made me think about the portrayal of the jihadists, which I trust Sissako (Mauritanian) to have represented accurately. Their behavior and interpretation of “Islamic law” (substitute any adjective) was to me the same as the behavior of colonizers and missionaries, e.g., dismissal of existing cultures and cultural norms, unwillingness to learn the local language, a sense of superiority through their interpretation of a particular ideology, and the use of intimidation. It seems ironic that your piece touched on a similar vein.

I agree that words inform thought and that linking “radical and jihadist” with Islam taints Islam, for what we are seeing is NOT Islam – these are extremists. And yes, the war for some may be against terrorism not religion, but the media do not bear that out. Islam is demonized by our careless use of language.

Continued Wednesday.