Interface with Islam

My life has been enriched through my friendship with noteworthy Islamic colleagues,  their friends and families over the years.  Two decades of observing, learning, and most importantly - listening - have served me well.  And I have said it before, but it bears repetition since my writing might be misconstrued. I have love for this community.  And I am comfortable among them.

But a few observations are in order.  Because over the years I have taken note of deficits of magnitude within the press corps, and even some of our think tanks devoted to the topic of Islam.  Add to that, anacephalic leaders in Europe, and things move with predictability toward crises such as what happened in Ceuta, Spain recently.

First of all - journalists (and leaders) have a nasty propensity to avoid uncomfortable truths.  Or in the case of terrorism, certain truths can be obscured from public view with a false flag of "for national security reasons", due to an irrational fear against speaking the truth during times of immense public distress.    Leadership can be reticent to just allow  the fit to hit the shan.  Because certain things which blow by our collective nostrils are so highly unacceptable, leadership quakes in the face of truth. And there can be a lack of understanding how backlash can be a component of stability.  Truly stable nations can withstand backlash. 

President George W. Bush quaked after 9/11.  Condi Rice quaked and informed us that, Islam is Peace.  But that which I still am unable to forgive is that Muzzammil Siddiqi was allowed to share the space in the Washington Cathedral during a commemoration of our losses. To be subjected to Qur'anic ayat in Arabic prior to his "interfaith" (there is no such thing) prayer,  was a bit too blasphemous and hideous for my taste.  This would be no different than allowing an arsonist to pray at the funeral of your mother because he set her home ablaze; or to allow a pedophile to offer a prayer at the bedside of your little girl who has been raped.  Islam did this.  Islam needed to take ownership of it.

Leadership continues to quake in the face of truth.

When Stephen Ogilvie was carved up on a Belfast street by a former police officer from the Sudan who was intent on his decapitation, his blood was not yet dried on the street before the Irish government began sternly warning the public against "Islamophobia".   This is usually the case, of course.  Blood is not allowed to cry out (Rev. 6:9-11), and I believe that an outcry on behalf of a victim is always a healthy response.  In the truest sense, it promotes societal homeostasis - in spite of a few cars and buses being torched, the protests in the street, etc.   The outcry - serves as a warning from the civilized against those lacking the same.  And when after horrific slaughters or an attempt of the same the Muslim community begins to cry out "Islamophobia" - I believe it is acceptable for their complaint to be drowned out momentarily by the greater cry of anger which the humane offer when confronted by atrocity.

In my years as a journalist, I have learned to detest cubicle knowledge - a form of knowledge otherwise known as sterile knowledge - because it produces minimal effect.  Knowledge which is gained by experience in a field, quickly moves from geometry into trigonometry.  And the terrain of the mind for Islam is a trigonometry experience.  Early on after 9/11, it amused me quite a bit to read the words of writers who gushed about having "interrogated" various terrorists.  Geometry.  They are your adversary and are going to offer up a triangle so that you don't figure out the  crescent.  But when you actually walk within the terrain (of the mind) as opposed to just viewing the topography from afar, things look much different.  Things begin to make sense.   The bottom line is that Islam is not understood, except in community. And within this community,  I have been given generous access to the thoughts of the Ummah.  I have shared much laughter and joy.  Too many meals to count and more cups of tea than Greg Mortenson could fabricate.  I certainly have not been kidnapped by that Taliban.  wink  That being said, I remain aware of the hurdles faced by Muslims in the West, the biggest hurdle of all, an unwillingness to assimilate, to lay down the sword.

Of course, not all within Islam is bad.  But enough is bad-to-the-bone that policies must reflect our willingness to make certain simple demands of the Muslim communities hosted within the West.  

You know, simple requests like: don't behead Samuel Paty and try to behead Stephen Ogilvie.  Simple requests like: don't attack Christians and Jews in their houses of worship.  Simple requests like: keep your beliefs and traditions within the privacy of your home and house of worship, and please, do not imagine it your right to establish daily, structured traditions in the public square, institutions, commercial properties,  and on our sidewalks. 

And finally:  don't continually bray like donkeys and claim Islamophobia for what you have brought on yourselves.

Logic is always subservient to wisdom.  So as I close out this post, please understand that nothing I write counts for wisdom.  That belongs in the domain of God.

Tammy