On Judgement & Fudgement

Over 170 years ago Alexis de Toqueville observed, “There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.” But the philosopher did not simple observe how litigious we are, but he also celebrated the checks and balances of the American political system as a safeguard against the “Tyranny of the Majority.”

Now however, with the unprecedented executive power grab by President Bush, we are quickly losing those systemic protections. Would a Supreme Court tend protect the powers of a lazy and distracted Congress or ally with the Executive Branch? Would a Supreme Court with Roberts and Alito challenge executive power at all? Unlikely. As the New York Times Editorial stated last Monday, “If the far right takes over the Supreme Court, American law and life could change dramatically.”

Last week, on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Pentagon to finally release the names and nationalities of hundreds of prisoners detained at Guantánamo Bay. This ruling is in response to a lawsuit brought by the Associated Press in April 2005 to determine whether the detainees at Guantánamo had been properly categorized as "enemy combatants." If the government appeals, however, a new Supreme Court with Judge Alito would be unlikely to question the authority of the President.

At the same time, attorneys for other Guantanamo detainees, Muslim Uighurs who oppose their country's Communist rule, were scheduled to petition the Supreme Court this week. They seek a solution to the problem created last month when U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the Bush administration's "Kafka-esque" indefinite detention of the Uighurs was illegal but that the court lacked the power to overrule the president and free them. "That ruling doesn't simply hit innocent men now in their fifth year of imprisonment," said Sabin Willett, one of the Uighurs' attorneys. "It goes to whether we have a judicial branch at all. This is that rare question so vital that the Supreme Court should immediately intervene to answer." But an Alito court would be unlikely to be disturbed by indefinite detention, surveillance programs or other excesses of the “War on Terror” as they affect more and more of us every day.

So instead, are we going to get used to secret evidence and military justice? What sort of justice is that? For example, on Monday a military jury ordered a reprimand but no jail time for an Army interrogator convicted of murdering an Iraqi general by stuffing him headfirst into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest. Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. had originally been charged with murder and faced up to life in prison. He was only ordered to forfeit $6,000 in salary and was largely restricted to his barracks and workplace for 60 days. I suppose the sleeping bag is optional for him!

But our justice system can and should be fairer. I have seen it work; and once again am expecting to serve jury duty next week. But when court cases become politicized, it becomes unlikely that justice will prevail. When courts are hidden in the bureaucracy of the military industrial complex, no wonder torturers go free!

Nationalism, like religion, can be an “opiate of the people”, that is a powerful, habit forming distraction good for manipulating others. In Turkey, the Justice Ministry finally dropped its absurd charges against writer Orhan Pamuk for “insulting the state” by mentioning the massacres of the Armenians 90 years ago. I wrote about this case 3 weeks ago. But the Ministry was hardly heroic. To avoid annoying the nationalists, the ministry gave the reason as a legal technicality instead of his right to freedom of expression.

Politics, religion, and ideology; though useful in moderation, all can be used as opiates that cloud human reason. Television, fashion, anything may become habit forming and intoxicating. As I write this in a Pakistani restaurant, the Bollywood videos on the TV are both laughable and disturbingly distracting. The dancers seem to have escaped from some crazy zoo; any spiritual content of traditional dance is quite lost in the flashy, aggressive individuality of the performers. They are just low paid actors but I think of a death dance of bugs on a dirty wall! And I think of the evil antics of the Bollywood inspired Bin Laden and his Flying Circus!

But let us not overlook that opiates are the opiates of the people— that is, opium, hashish, and amphetamines-- and yes, even Muslims may find family members addicted to drugs! This is not an issue to deny. Isn’t the main source of heroin Muslim Afghanistan? Is that not a shameful corruption and a horror?

Some drugs are more habit forming than others. Many of us have had our youthful indiscretions and experimentations. But most of us know friends or family lost in the desert of addiction with little hope of return. And one of the more recent drugs to invade the continental United States has been Methamphetamine; there are at least 1.4 million addicts in the USA, mainly in the West, Mid-West and South. The ingredients can be mixed from simple over the counter drugs, but are so volatile that they frequently blow up labs and burn people with toxic chemicals. Children of Meth users may become poisoned as well as abused and abandoned.

In Georgia, operation Meth Merchant has swept up 44 South Asian convenience store merchants who wittingly or unwittingly sold ingredients. The Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant has denounced law enforcement targeting as racially biased. In any case, now that 30 states are restricting the ingredients that make this terrible drug, new supplies of even stronger drugs (Crystal Ice Meth) are coming over the border from Mexico. This illegal import will just give more motivation to those who would like to close our nation’s borders; more ICE agents against ICE Meth.

Addiction is a terrible prison. Most drugs are like diseases, and self-limiting, since they kill off their addicts; yet Meth use continues to devastate communities and families. Muslim families may imagine it will not affect them! You may never see the signs until it is too late! And as a social problem drug abuse cannot be solved only through law enforcement. Increasingly our government gives up on treatment and education and social services; and social problems grow worse. And the government only hires more police! And gets us deeper into debt through military adventure, making it impossible to pay for social services! A terrible cycle! A train wreck! A Bush Administration! May Allah guide us through such dangers, to forgiveness, to wisdom and balance in all things; when human judgement fails and turns to fudgement, may we remember the standards of our faith, and that our souls will be weighed on the final day. May your good deeds be remembered!

New Years 2006

The New Year 2006 has begun. This chilly January morning I attended the inauguration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, at the kind invitation of Muslim colleagues in the Mayor’s Office. Billionaire Republicans are not usually my cup of tea. However no tea was needed; we were all served hot cider in embossed aluminum thermoses. And, as Chaplain told us after the program; “Muslims must be everywhere there is an event!” At this particular event, the Chaplain was the first to offer prayers of hope and challenge.

A New Year has begun. Again. It is a reminder that we may always begin again. Speakers reminded us of the last inauguration after 9/11 when bitter smoke still rose in the near distance, and no one knew what the next moment would bring. This time both the Mayor and Comptroller Thompson reminded us that any moment might indeed bring a better future. Imagine that!

Allah knows best. Only three days ago in our own neighborhood He called Sister Selima Akhtar to His Paradise. She had gone to the window to look out. At that one moment on the street below a drunken soldier on leave from Iraq shot into the air and hit her in the eye, killing her instantly, insha’Allah. Who would expect the war in Iraq to occur in our midst, now, in Queens, New York?

The young soldier turned himself in, having forever changed life for many families and individuals. And how will he bear his own stupidity? At the moment it may have seemed a fine heroic gesture. Now he too will suffer. But how many times do soldiers fire their rifles in the air overseas? How many unknown victims are there in Iraq? And yes, this sort of random tragedy also happens at weddings in Beirut and Belfast and the Bronx.

But besides this irresponsible man, we must also blame the culture of war; the training that brutalizes men in the name of protecting our security. And we can blame the movies too. Around the world young men want to enter the Matrix; and become Rambo or Superfly or any cool action hero. Some of these heroic figures exemplify some principle or show some humanity. Some just kill, entertainingly, blowing the mind, numbing the mind. Twenty years ago we had Charles Bronson, Steven Siegal, Bruce Willis; but now there is also an increasing number of violent female role models to choose from. Chill! Mad cool!

Since Muslims often suffer from stereotyping in the mainstream media, we as a community may be relatively aware of the dangerous power of propaganda. We see how dumbed-down populist politics can easily control a secular nation. Of course media helps this process of control by pandering to fear. In this way, CSI, Sleeper Cell, and many other programs focus lazy American minds on the “Muslim threat”.

But the increasing proliferation of heroic prosecutors and noble cops in law and order programs has also been troubling for several years. As media critic Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times observes, “Strangely, the more doubt that DNA testing casts on the fairness of the American system of justice, the more criminal cases on television dramas become open-and-shut. The "Law & Order" shows all vibrate with moral certainty. The "CSI" series make a religion of forensic science.” (12/30/05) Those of you who grew up with this may not remember anything different—you may accept it as normal!

In a similar way, nations, resistance groups and criminal individuals all rationalize primitive and aggressive impulses through religious and nationalistic imagery. They may even hypnotize themselves. And they accept their paranoia and megalomania as normal. Muslims! If we do not reflect, if we do not wake up, the literal interpretation of scripture and revelation may lead past the logic of ethics to Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

Unfortunately like other humans, some Muslims are drawn to the intoxicating power of propaganda. At best, these Muslim men and women are irresponsible as drunken soldiers. Hundreds of websites irresponsibly distort the Quran and the Sunna in the name of militant jihad; hostage beheadings are shown on many sites; and even the 9/11 terror attack was a special effect worthy of Hollywood.

But so far Hollywood has the bigger budget. And yes I go to the movies too, though selectively! Just saw Steven Spielberg’s Munich; if you see it, go with a friend you can argue with! Its bittersweet glorification of the Israeli War on Terror may not please us Muslims but it is not a simple cartoon version with superheroes. It is a complex cartoon version. Let us all beware!

On January 20, movie theaters will show, “the hilarious story of what happens when the U.S. Government sends comedian Albert Brooks to India and Pakistan to find out what makes the over 300 million Muslims in the region laugh.” Hmmm? Will we all be laughing together or at each other? Will Albert Brooks be laughing all the way to the bank?

Still later, several other films about 9/11 will open; by directors Spike Lee and Oliver Stone among others. All of this is normal—a form of national dialogue. But we Muslims need to be ready to respond, to create our own films, distribution, markets; and not only be crouched in a defensive posture forever. Oh, I am so tired of being so serious! How do we move towards laughing and towards convincing others of our humanity and brotherhood? Our Deen is not only obedience to a way of life but also a deeper faith; which can develop human virtues and inspire the world. If we follow this course with patience we have no need of militant websites, nuclear bombs or dirty tricks.

This moment as you are reading these words— this precious now; is this a new beginning of the rest of your life? Or the last, a moment ending in an accident; a heart attack, a bomb attack? The heart ticks like a bomb. You think that discomfort in your chest is only heartburn brother? What was that sound, sister and brother, like a gunshot in the distance? Hope or fear? What is it?