Thomas Friedman New York Times
We recently founded a new synagogue in Maryland - so new that we still don't have a place to meet and had to rent a place for our Hanukkah party. When our weekly bulletin came out, the following message appeared in it: "Our Shabbat Eve Prayer/Sabbath Supper/Hanukkah Party will be held on December 14th at Trinity Presbyterian Church." I read these words, and suddenly it hit me: how normal I was. We are having a Hanukkah party. She will be at the neighborhood church. See you there.
Every time I encounter the reality of religious tolerance in the United States, it seems almost a convention to me. I know that religious intolerance is also alive and well in this country, but it is not the norm. The norm is that our floating synagogue can have its Hanukkah party at the local church, and no one thinks this is unusual. The norm is that the district orchestra in which my daughter plays, mostly Asian-American players, ended its holiday concert with a Hanukkah rendition - including a solo by the Hispanic lead player, delivered so beautifully it would have made the fiddler on the roof shed a tear - and no one thought it was more unusual than the " "Bells Jingle (Christmas song) played as an encore.
And that brings me to the Osama Bin Laden tape. The most shocking thing about the tape was not bin Laden's boasting about his mass murder. The most chilling thing was the unidentified Saudi sheikh sitting next to him, who shook his head so enthusiastically - in agreement with everything bin Laden said, assuring him that in the mosques in Saudi Arabia the reaction to the terrorist acts was "very positive".
That's right, bin Laden is complete. But the thousands of sheikhs chattering around him still exist - sympathizers of his religious totalitarianism, and we haven't even begun to design a strategy to change their minds (whoever listened to their conversation felt like he was eavesdropping on a conversation from the Middle Ages). Everyone is asking: What is the next country that the United States will attack? Iraq? Somalia? The more important question is: How do we delegitimize the ideas supported by that Sheikh and bin Laden, who sat and called the name of Allah while discussing mass murder?
This is a task that must begin with the Muslims themselves, and there are those who long to do it. They are thirsty for a language and leadership that will succeed in putting Islam on a new path, that will allow modern education, pluralism and religious tolerance. A few days ago I received an email from a young Pakistani American woman regarding a column in which I condemned religious totalitarianism. "Basically, you are expressing my views and those of many American Muslims I know. I am only saddened that more Muslims do not step forward and publicly express the same truth - that the Islamic Enlightenment is already very late, and that this Enlightenment needs to foster a dynamic and progressive Islamic thinking that embraces the Pluralism and modernity... these ideas will be perceived as more convincing in the eyes of the masses of Muslims if will be said by other Muslims."
A few days ago, a discussion on this topic took place on the Al Jazeera television network. Arab journalist Ahmed al-Saraf asked: "Why don't we have tolerance? This rhetoric of hate is heard in all the sermons, in all the textbooks... We don't need America to intervene and teach us how to worship God, but we need a certain factor to force us to change our curriculum , which invites extremism".
The question is, will any Arab-Muslim leaders rise up to address these feelings, or will they all hunker down and hope the storm passes? Will the United States raise these issues - of pluralism and tolerance - in the ears of our Muslim allies, or will we bow as long as the oil continues to flow?
I thought it was ironic that President Bush announced that he was canceling the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty - to build a missile defense system - just minutes before he released the bin Laden tape. The president's emphasis on missile defense reminded me of a man whose house had just been burned down by the neighbor's son. And his response was to call the plumber, because that was the only phone number he remembered.
A missile defense system? Thank you. If we do not do our part, and our Muslim friends theirs, in fostering religious tolerance and religious pluralism, no wall will be tall enough and no missile defense system will be accurate enough to protect us from the next wave of human missiles launched at us - not by Bin Laden , but by the unidentified sheikh or his disciples.
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