Hatred is a blade that cuts both ways. Yesterday, our nation was reminded this by way of a horrific attack in Fort Hood Texas. A Muslim soldier, who had suffered discrimination in the U.S. Army for his religion, lashed out against his fellow soldiers, killing 13 individuals and wounding 30 more. My first predisposition was to think that his religion that motivated the shootings. After thinking about it further, I realized that presumption was incredibly short sighted.
The man who committed this crime had served the military all his life. He has also been a life long Muslim. If he didn’t see a conflict between his religion and his occupation all those years before, what changed his mind? Was it years of discrimination after World Trade Center attacks? Was it hearing the war stories of battle scarred soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan – day in and day out as a part of his job as a psychiatrist? Was it because his love of this country had been blunted by this country’s hatred of his kind?
I am not saying that Major Nidal Malik Hasan is exempt from responsibility for his actions; this man is a trained psychiatrist. He should have been able to recognize his own mental illness and removed himself from the situation before he became a danger to himself and his fellow soldiers. It does not matter how desperate the situation might be – there is always a non-violent solution.
What I am saying is that I believe the result would have been the same had this been a Muslim nation, and he a Christian soldier facing the same discrimination, being sent to fight against a Christian nation, and hearing the same war stories. When it is “us” against “them”, you are one of “them” but you’re fighting with “us”, the hatred flung by both sides is bound to disturb you on a deep level. It doesn’t matter if “us” and “them” are Christians and Muslims, Whites and Blacks, or Football fans and Baseball fans; hate cuts the hater just as profoundly as the hated.
When I hear pro-life advocates call pro-choice advocate “murderers,” I understand it as condoning the slaughter on both sides. When right-wing talk show hosts deprecate democrats as being Nazis and Communist, I hear them inciting another bloody civil war. Whenever one group of people demonizes another, they not only endanger the lives of those “other people,” but also endanger their own. If there is any sense to be of the massacre at Fort Hood, I think it should be that hatred always yields violence. I fear, however, that many will only think of this as another reason why not to trust Muslims.
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From the UK, I wonder how much hatred was visited on Irish people living here at the height of the Provisional IRA’s bombing campaign. It was not much reported, although I’m sure it happened, but it didn’t assume epidemic proportions. I don’t know where the tipping point is which triggers tribal violence purely on the basis of one’s tribe. Because the point at which the UK or the US might slip into the horror that was Boznia or Ruanda is unknown, the news organisations which feed us their particular version of events bear a heavy responsibility here. Even if, as has been suggested, the US military is being infiltrated on its own soil, as the police in Afghanistan and Iraq have been infiltrated, we are dealing here with Jehadist extremists, just as we were dealing with armed Irish Republican zealots. Even if infiltration is occurring, we are not dealing with Muslims Per Se here, just as we were not dealing with Irish people in general.
Whether there is any infiltration of the US military by extremists perverting Islam for their purposes or not, it’s an understandable conclusion to be jumped to by those who need an identifiable target. But we can’t go around suspecting every Christian just because a very few of them go around shooting doctors. And so it is with Muslims. History shows us that we, as a mob, are desperate for some excuse to ddestroy some identifiable group, fuelled by a sense of righteous vengeance. We can’t no what’s in the hearts of other anthropoids of course, but Jane Goodall has reported similar behavior in chimpanzees, which will occasionally go off and destroy another group for no apparent reason. Of course, their local media may have been winding them up with all the good reasons to hate this “other lot”. Perhaps this kind of chimp is seen by their attackers as threatening some sacred tenet of chimpanzee culture, whereas the vast majority of them are the chimp equivalent of Jewish and Muslim shop keepers just trying to make a living.
In short, when talking up events, or observing our own reactions to them, we should beware the slippery slope. One of these days, if a few people “like us” start going around shooting people, we might become the target for the righteous mob.
Hello Reg,
To be honest, your response has given me a lot to think about. I have to give it more thought before giving a decent reply… As such I am putting off replying to this until I have the chance to really absorb what you are saying.
You’ve churned my mind, and that’s a good thing, guy.
Namaste.
Thanks John. Trying not to make the results of my thinking aloud even more vague, I worry about our tribal triggers, and that news organisations may use them in an unprincipled attempt to boost their ratings.
If I have any advice for myself this morning, it is that i should categorise as I would be categorised.
[...] their own. If there is any sense to be of the massacre at Fort Hood, I think it should be that hatred always yields violence. I fear, however, that many will only think of this as another reason why not to trust Muslims. [...]