Expressez-Vous

By: Joud Kashgari

“Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.”

(- Kahlil Gibran)

It is an everyday occurrence, yet in retrospect it chills me to realize I’ve come to accept and even expect it. After I wake up and take a shower, I turn on my television, surf the internet or listen to a podcast to quickly learn about the events of the day and there they are: bearded, grim, volcanic men who claim only God as their authority, threatening all who might disagree with their idiosyncratic interpretations of sacred texts. Rhetoric from Osama bin Laden, Hassan Nasrallah, the rotating list of semi-anonymous Hamas spokesmen and their ilk of a cosmic conflict between the righteous few and the infidel conspirators are juxtaposed with image of riots, war and suffering in places like Pakistan, Palestine and Somalia. For a few brief moments, I reside in these images, in a divided land of terror and hate.

Then, I hear the muezzin calling for prayer outside and I get ready to catch the bus to head to my university. When I arrive on campus, I head to my classes, where I discuss the devastation of the Lebanese Civil War, the infamous Sayyid Qutb’s impact on Egyptian political thought and the rise of the post-1948 political Zionism. As I begin to head back to my bus, I hear another azan again, this time from a student’s mouth, carried across the plaza from the library. I pick up the school newspaper to read about how controversial his actions have been deemed by the more non-religious members of the student body, though I support his right to practice his religion, considering it does not clash with typical mores of the country. However, I also find his criticism of the university’s religiously neutral policy as tantamount to antitheism alarming. I then go home to get e-mails relating to me the black comedy of the abominations that are Hamas’s Farfour and a Hasbara-inspired anti-Palestinian media campaign, which are basically attempts to indoctrinate children.

It is no doubt that, at least in the Middle East, it is difficult to imagine life without the presence of religion, regardless of whether one is indeed devout or not, for it seeps into politics, morality and identity. Indeed, even the most non-religious Arabophones will regularly use Islamic phrases like “If God wills” (Inshallah) and “Peace be upon you” (Salamu-Alaikum) commonly. I have no problem with this, albeit if it is difficult to speak my native tongue with as much objectivity as English at times because of this. However, what I do abhor is the modern surge of xenophobic, militant and totalitarian interpretations of Islam, because it mars both the faith’s reputation as well as the diversity, humanism and progressiveness of its 1.2 billion adherents globally.

Nevertheless, I do not think that this is an epidemic limited to the Middle East, given that domestic Islamist terrorism has been recorded in the United Kingdom, Indonesia, China, Uzbekistan and India in addition to Saudi Arabia, Algeria and, as recently as two weeks ago, Egypt. Indeed, I do not even think that it is limited to Islam; the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka, the increasing radicalization of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States, the political ascent of ultranationalist right-wing Zionism in Israel following recent elections and the fierce activities of Sikh separatist militancy in India are all, alongside the above, links in the same chain of religious extremism that has come into limelight in current years.

I recently attended a lecture by Professor Scott Appleby of the University of Chicago, co-author of The Fundamentalist Project, about this topic of synchronized proliferation of global religious extremism, and I believe he hit the mark when he described its adherents as “… anti-modern moderns.” All these religious extremists, whether they are terrorists, ideologues or simply that odd fellow down the street, reject the manifestations of modernization, such as secularism, rationalism and plurality. They are afraid of the uncertainty that lies in not having only just one paradigm of thought in their lives, and thus, act to destroy the source of their fears. For Islamist terrorism, it has been manifested in the monolithic entity of the “West” and its alleged lackeys in the Islamic World, which, when combined with poverty, authoritarianism and/or nationalism, leads to violence. As we attempt to move towards a globalized age where borders, tangible or otherwise, are being broken down, religion is being exploited as an excuse not to move forward and we all turn to blame each other without realizing the true intentions and meanings of the issue.

Therefore, I call on every individual who has hate in his heart against any particular group of people to really stop for a moment and think critically, “Why should I hate? Are we not all at our core simply human beings who all love and suffer? Why does it matter that I was randomly born somewhere and raised into a particular identity?” I have pondered these questions, and have reached the conclusion that we don’t simply need tolerance, for that implies finding a flaw in another person because of who they are but choosing to ignore it. No, we need acceptance, for once we abandon the superficial labels we have been assigned by history, we will see the underlying commonness between us all.

Yet, what to do with the bigotry of religious extremists? Shall we accept them too? Though it is somewhat paradoxical, one of the principles I carry in my life is that I can tolerate anything but intolerance. Essentially, as long as you do not accept me, as I exist, I will find it quite difficult to accept you in the same way. However, this does not mean hatred should develop, for this simply throws us back to the root of our problems. Instead, we should follow the proverb of “Hate the sin, not the sinner.” Whether we choose the path of force, as some, like the former Bush administration in America, have attempted, or of dialogue, it is up to us to change the minds of those who have not already.

It is time to break the chains.