Since the World Trade Center was destroyed by terrorists from Saudi Arabia, I have seen the occassional editorial piece, commentary, review, etc., make the point that "there is something wrong with those...Arab countries." Well, who can deny it! Many are impoverished, others have great wealth and bizarre social arrangements. Their cultures uneasily straddle the chasm between modernity and traditional society, and at this point in history, they are churning out murderous fanatics at an alarming rate. But these commentaries often push further, intimating that there is something fundamentally violent, deranged, or fanatical about these societies and the Moslem religion. Ah, how short is our historical memory!
In my parents' generation, a lunatic loser led a great and civilized nation into a suicidal quest for world domination. In the process, his nation systematically murdered in cold blood six million people, simply because they were Jews, and another five or six millon becuase they were Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, or some other despised category. He espoused a visionary mythology that seemed lifted from a Classic Comics version of The Ring, and he was quite successful, for a while. Right in the heart of the West!
Can we, citizens of the free, democratic West, seriously maintain that there is something intrinsic to the Arab countries that has put them in this mess? Does the history of Christianity reveal a steady roll call of peacemakers, saintly statesmen, and reasoned negotiation throught the past two millenia? Or does it contain endless brutal slaughter of minorities and fellow Christians for G*d knows what all reasons?
Let's face it, human beings of all races, creeds, colors, and religions share at least this one common trait: they are capable of doing horrific wrongs to their fellow human beings and claiming that God is on their side as they do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment