Does the World Remember?

With the spring, I recall a time in Spain years ago, my climb up the muddy cobbled way up from Granada to the Alhambra. The fortress-like exterior is rough but the interior is like a fountain made of marble, all delicate arcs suspended in air. Surely there is Islamic wisdom embodied here, not merely kingly pride. And yet below, the petals of the almond blossom fall on muddy clay; above, snows melt on the far-off mountains; the seasons pass. We too will pass. What can we do that our efforts will hang suspended in space to comfort humanity awhile?

In Mysteries of Selflessness, the Poet Allam Iqbal writes, “Since love first made the breast an instrument/Of fierce lamenting, by its flame my heart/Was molten to a mirror, like a rose/I pluck my breast apart, that I may hang/This mirror in your sight/ Gaze you therein."

Founder of this newspaper, The Mirror, Muhammad Anver Beig has shown his legacy in waqf, beneficial knowledge, and righteous children. May we honor his efforts. May we honor the efforts of all our fathers, great and small. These men may leave no marble monument; but we may cherish the memory of small kindnesses, gentle lessons, waking and guiding little hands. Let the fathers among us remember their fathers too. Forgive if necessary, but remember the warmth of love.

But does the world remember? I recall my time in Dahab, snorkeling in the Sinai, when there was very little food to be found on shore but cans of apricot jam. Now twenty years have passed, tourist hotels have been built, prosperity has arrived, and terrorist bombs explode. Fathers die, mothers, brothers and sisters. Connected directly or not, the terror struck a day after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden issued a taped warning that ordinary Western citizens had become legitimate targets because of their support of governments conducting a "crusader war against Islam."

But sometimes Crusaders and Jihadis resemble each other in cruelty. Extremists believe that the ends justify the means. Power is everything. And after the tape was released, Michael Scheuer, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's bin Laden unit, described how Bush and Bin Laden policies work together: "We cut off Hamas after we had a fair election. It looks like we are going to intervene in another Muslim country with oil, in Sudan; we followed Israel's lead with Hamas. His most important ally is American foreign policy." This is a mindless cycle of violence.

In the USA, MPAC declared, “Global Muslim leaders should reject Bin Laden's false claims of leadership. This message of widespread destruction and war not only feeds the notion of a clash of civilizations, but exploits the vacuum of broadly recognized Muslim leadership. Muslim leaders and scholars of all schools of thought must reinforce and amplify a united voice that can counteract this message of Islam as a destructive force while initiating political, economic and social reform that will address the grievances of the people and isolate the extremists.”

Muslim voices need to be heard! Yet at the same time it was unclear if Muslims would be asked to speak, or agree to speak, at the April 30 Darfur rallies. April 29 antiwar rallies were expected to include Muslims; May 1 demonstrations in favor of immigrant rights are also expected to include some Muslims. Is it not important that Muslims speak publicly on all human rights concerns? And is it not important that our voices be strong but our words well considered, measured, wise?

We have seen empires rise and fall. One hundred years ago, the Ottoman Empire was in debt; and now the American empire is almost as in debt. However, the Ottomans lost their military bases one by one; but the USA is still building them. It is hard to know the lifespan of imperial domination. And what comes after America might well be worse. The multinational corporation might grow to terrific proportions.

But meanwhile, there are other forms of power; the softer power of influence, commerce, and media. There is the art and science of mediation, of “win-win” solutions, and accurate analysis. There is real intelligence and the human capacity to learn from experience. In the mosque board, and in the international “great game”, let Muslims not demonize any culture or living faith.

However Muslim Americans are getting used to being demonized. The head of NYPD Counter-Terrorism, Mr. Cohen, claims there are “changed circumstances’ in the nation because so many mosques are “radicalized.” Neo-conservatives from Richard Perle to Peter King have made similar assertions. Do they really see this as a religion-based ideological war?

The current Siraj Mateen trial will show to what extent the police have infiltrated our mosques and created entrapment plots for cash. Similarly, the new case of Sadequee will give us a sense of how far law enforcement can legally go to squeeze someone for information. This young man was kidnapped by Bangladeshi and US law enforcement last week and brought back, via Alaska, to lonely confinement in New York.

Similarly, Mr. Osama Awadallah is still being charged with imprecision in his answers to FBI in interrogations during his solitary confinement; he has never been charged with any role in terror. How far can prosecutors go? They even tried to get rid of Judge Shira Scheindlin, whom they found too fair to the Muslim detainees. The good Judge, by the way, is an Orthodox Jew. So put away your copies of the Protocols, please!

While perhaps well-meaning, such films as “Flight UA 93” will continue to traumatize us, as will the ongoing “terror trials.” To lessen the mistrust, some of us have participated in Town Hall meetings with law enforcement. Last week one was held in New York City’s Jackson Heights. Still another FBI Townhall Meeting will be televised nationally on Monday, May 15th at 8pm on Bridges TV. Yet despite such dialogues, it is not clear that the FBI is more accountable than before. Recently the FBI found apparent violations of its own wiretapping and other intelligence gathering procedures more than 100 times in the last 2 years and problems appear to have grown more frequent in some crucial respects (DOJ March 8 report).

But whistleblowers are fired. Leakers are fired (except for President Bush) and recently a well-established person in the CIA Inspector General’s Office was fired. This person has stated she is not guilty of providing information about hidden CIA prisons in Europe to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest, who last week won a Pulitzer Prize for the reports. "Nobody got fired for September 11 …but they fire someone for this?" said one former US senior intelligence official.

I do not want to see our resentment manipulated. I do not wish to see Muslims demonized, or fall into self-loathing and anger. I hope we will learn new forms of power sharing that show the world our intelligence and our ability to outsmart the bureaucracy with love. As Muslims, we can provide positive role models to humanity. Look into the mirror of your heart, see if you are ready. Keep your appointments with prayer; see if you are humble enough to sacrifice your time and your comforting illusions –this is how the true war on terror must begin.