With Demons and Democracy

This week, hoping to clear my mind of its worries and concerns, I went to see the big expensive sword and scandals epic Troy. Of course I would have been better off praying or reading or doing almost anything else, but I also wanted to see if there was any message I could take out of this historical pageant, which in Homer’s moving telling is indeed valuable and not unlike the early Arab poets in its tragic tone.

Well, with the help of 175 million dollars, some of Troy was visually impressive, but virtually none of it was intelligent. What truly awful dialogue! This Troy would have been much better as a silent movie. Perhaps as a mirror of this great nation at this time, the movie both glamorizes violence and expresses a measure of old-world fatalism and weariness about war. And as I watched the ancient battles with impatience, noting how much Helen of Troy resembles Brittany Spears, US troops continued to fight among the holy shrines of Najaf in the name of Democracy; the bully Israel bulldozes scores of Palestinian homes in the name of Judaism and security; and some Muslims commit crimes in the name of Islam and Jihad. Will violence prevail forever?

We know that violence pervades our society. Like some intoxicants, It affects us all differently. When portrayed in art, it may be a powerful anti-war statement, or a provocation. Another Brad Pitt film called Fight Club is quite violent but it has intelligent and complex things to say about male psychology and culture. However, the violent films of Tarantino, and a hundred other sensationalist directors, exploit a tabloid toollbox to titillate viewers. The range of effects demeans and dehumanizes human beings, and their deaths have little significance other than entertainment. A culture that finds this amusing will produce an increasing quota of sadistic jail guards and continue to install thugs like Mr. Rumsfield in high places.

War hardly ever enobles. Even Muslims must be very careful in this matter. War gives license. War designates an enemy as “fair game” and “less than human”. For example, as Rush Limbaugh expressed in his radio show after the criminal and strange beheading of Nicholas Berg: “They're the ones who are sick, they're the ones who are perverted. They are the ones who are dangerous. They are the ones who are subhuman. They are the ones who are human debris, not the United States of America and not our soldiers and not our prison guards." But there is no need to compare one crime with another. One does not excuse or erase another.

As Muslims in the USA we do need to be concerned about both Muslim and American criminality, and the way ideology will dehumanize others. Like pornography, any ideology may transform human beings in all their complexity and individuality into objects. While I do not advocate smashing all the icons as idols, I do warn us of the power of images to mislead, the creeping influence of kitsch and propaganda through the increasingly occult sciences of advertising, marketing and promotion. Even images of happy families may be worse than violent imagery, when the intent is to mislead or to sell a product. These issues certainly pertain to global culture; but also to the way we transmit our own faith traditions.

In the US, surely the real issue is not the expression so much as the content or lack of content of our public discourse. The new FCC rules may ban certain words from the radio waves, but as long as he does not use four letter words, Mr. Limbaugh and others will continue to poison the minds of our fellow Americans.

There is even a backlash against the scandal of Abu Ghraib. While one understands that not everyone will demand the resignation of Rumsfield, though there are indications that he condoned torture in Iraq, Afghanistan, in “undesignated places” and in Guantanamo, one would think the revulsion would be universal. Yet James Imhofe, Republican Senator of Oklahoma, who is on the committee investigating the abuses, complains, “ I got a little weary of everyone talking about human rights abuses. These detainees are not normal detainees, they are terrorists…” However our own US military has stated that 60 per cent of those at Abu Ghraib were picked up by mistake. And even more important, human rights are not only for the fortunate few, not just for Americans and their friends, but for all. Senator, what religion do you claim to profess? Shame on you.


Poor breath, poor spirit—how you are spent in argument and conflict. May His breath of compassion inform our hearts. So now we face a summer of violence overseas, and crimes here in New York. We can watch the Charles Manson story on TV. We can get the news about the latest subway shoving, the latest rape. Instead, let us work to educate our community and our neighbors, for violence is a spiritual problem that involves wrong thinking as well as the emotions. As Muslims we do have the tools, which we must use –not tabloid tools. Other faith groups also need our help in spreading a credible message of peace. And we can learn from them too. I highly recommend one such initiative from the Fellowship of Reconciliation-- www.forusa.org/programs/iraq/WhatYouCanDo.htm. We can work together.