Christmas is coming, with our sense of peace and mutual goodwill vaporized by yet another bloody slaughter, this time not by some mindless kook, but with malice aforethought in the name of holy jihad. Our calamity begs many questions.
First, are Islamic morals and values compatible with Western moral and value systems? Can the two be reconciled? Can Islamic values be successfully assimilated into Western societies? The answers matter.
Of the three major religions that originated in the eastern Mediterranean, I feel it significant that Islam has the heaviest ritualistic hold on its adherents. Muslims must pray five times a day, following strict rules governing how one stands, sits, bows, how one prostrates oneself, how many prayers to say, which prayers to say, and which direction to face. One cannot pray if one has become unclean – like “lean against something” – one must perform proper ablutions, meaning one washes face, hands and feet in order to be clean before God.
Was this one-upmanship upon Judaism or Christianity by the upstart Mohammed? I don’t know and don’t care – but I’m not attracted to any God that demands my attention 35 times a week.
To secular Westerners, even to the devout who never miss a chance to worship, it’s not hard to regard Islam as a form of physical, even mental, captivity, which in turn reminds me of a concept called metanoia.
Generally defined as repentance, but more properly as a change of mindset, metanoia operates primarily in a religious context. To varying degrees, churches will sequester new recruits in order to strengthen their convictions and the conversion. The ostensible, idealistic purpose is to save a soul, but there’s a mercenary motive as well. Successfully prying a seeker away from his or her wicked ways also helps create a faithful religionist who hopefully will end up being a reliable supporter of the church – as in money, the funds needed to support the church’s operational infrastructure, to support “good works.”
But if you substitute “politics” for “religion,” it’s easy to see how metanoia also aptly describes processes of political recruitment or conversion to, or indoctrination in, political causes, very much like techniques religious institutions use to “close the deal.” Hmmm … metanoia really isn’t that much different from outright manipulation, is it?
But there’s a reverse side to metanoia. Want to keep another church from converting your congregants? Want to keep your believers from thinking impure thoughts? Want to prevent their assimilation into a society with competing or different morals or value systems? Monitoring them 35 times a week seems a pretty effective technique for keeping people isolated from mainstream thought, doesn’t it?
The big question facing us all is whether or not Muslims, refugee or not, can successfully assimilate into American society and internalize American ideals. If immigration occurs with the intent of assimilation and acceptance, it’s all good.
But how good are the values and morals on display in Paris, New York, and San Bernardino by supposedly devout Muslims? We have the killer husband’s father telling Sonny not to worry about Israel being around much longer. Good values role model, hmmm?
The killers left a baby, leaving us all to ponder the soaring morality of a newly married couple dropping their first-born daughter off with Grandma and heading off for live target practice on fellow humans. What a loving legacy. Where did they learn to think this way? Who the heck brainwashed them?
Even when it comes to moderate Muslims, what about that tone-deaf, clueless producer at Al-Jazeera (yep, the network that made Al Gore a really rich dude), who tweeted that because our woman killer had unfailingly worn a burqa, “it’s disrespectful to show a pic without,” and “disrespectful to her family.” Seriously?
The slaughter of 14 people, maiming 21 more, was an act of deepest respect, right? What about the failed pipe bombs? Killing dead wasn’t enough? The PLAN was to blow up the pieces? R-E-S-P-E-C-T …
So here we are, in the time of year when we pause to reflect on what matters most to us – who we are, and what we believe.