GEOMETRY OF DESTRUCTION:

GEOMETRY OF DESTRUCTION:
CIRCLE, DOME AND THE CYCLE of VIOLENCE

After 9/11, the space in the sky seemed so very empty without the Twin Towers, and for months it was an emotional shock to turn in that direction and feel the absence. We were all surprised to feel this, for the World Trade Center was not beloved or beautiful in form. Imagine, then, the painful absence from the Samarra skyline, of the high golden dome of the Al-Askariya shrine.
Now the shrine is a ruined dome, bare and ravaged walls rising over a sacred space “in which the names of God are mentioned.” Have the terrorists won the day?

In sacred geometry a dome has profound significance; if the destroyers understood it they would not dare to dynamite it. A dome acts represents, “a transition between the infinite unity of its central point, through the duality of its symbolism into the concretization of the four-sided chamber which supports it.” It thus embodies creation and reminds us of the Divine; and as the noted scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr reminded us week, the beauty of such sacred sites also embodies "the wisdom of the community," and "to see this before your eyes is like the world crumbling before you."

With more than 72.000 golden pieces it had been one of the biggest domes in the Islamic world. But more important, it contains the tombs of Imam Ali Al-Hadi who died in 254 A.H. and his son Al-Hasan Al-Askari who died in 260 A.H. And these are places sacred to Shia Muslims for many reasons, and Sunni Muslims also visited and helped to maintain them.

And why should one not visit such places? I have visited many tombs in various countries and truly found guidance from Allah in the intense atmosphere of prayer and meditation. These inspiring places are like sources of cool pure water in the desert. Why pollute or destroy such mercies to humanity? But because of various campaigns by the Wahhabi authorities to eradicate tombs, even of the Prophet’s family, there are many who suspect that this destructive wind comes out of the East and not the West, even perhaps an al qaeda hand in this act of provocation.

Insha’Allah the truth of the matter will come to light and our community will not content itself with myth and rumor and conspiracy theory to explain this terrible disaster. I pray that the terrorists do not successfully exploit the confusion and resentment of the long-suffering Iraqi people. Tens of thousands of civilians have perished in attacks and in terror attacks; and the US military has either killed or detained 24,470 Iraqis in 2004 and 26,500 in 2005. And how the people of Samarra, mainly Shia Muslims, have suffered; the economy has largely collapsed in the face of this foreign occupation, and the city's population has fallen from 200,000 to 90,000 since the end of 2004.

At that time, over one year ago, U.S. troops constructed a six mile-long earth wall around the outside of the city with only three entry/exit points. But despite this, the security situation has been deteriorating, and the attack by a dozen men in paramilitary uniform occurred on the third day of violence targeted at the Iraqi security forces.

The writer Paul Rogers describes reports of cultural clashes that worsen relations with the occupying forces in Samarra; "The soldiers heaved the two bodies onto the hood of a Humvee and tied them down with cord. The dead insurgents' legs and arms flapped in the air as the Humvee rumbled along. Iraqi families stood in front of the surrounding houses. They watched the corpses ride by and glared at the Americans." (Open Democracy, 23 - 2 – 2006)

In any case, the people of Iraq and the world face the challenge of building peace in the ruins of this dome. As wrote last week in the Washington Post, “Old grievances are renewed, old tensions rekindled. The past, filled with the sting of injustice -- there's always enough to go around, no matter what small niche of the human race you occupy -- isn't so much remembered as it is constantly relived. There's no time for reflection, no time to come off the boil; humanity finds itself in a state of perpetual adolescence, short-fused and remarkably indifferent to whether it wants or expects to have a future.”

At a rally last week across the street from the United Nations, a number of Sunni imams and active community figures joined several thousand of our grieving Shia neighbors. Though it was difficult to see them in the crowd, it was good to see imams from Bangladesh, Guinea, Palestine, leaders from Egypt and Pakistan. And others sent messages of support. It was surprising to be physically pulled up to the small crowded stage; and an honor to have the opportunity to address the crowd as representative of the diverse Muslim Consultative Network; to send the message of solidarity.

At the same time, however, some of the major Muslim groups failed to end a representative, or even to post messages on their website in timely fashion, despite reminders that this might be mistaken for support for takfiri tactics. And are some of our leaders indeed reluctant to speak publicly in support of our Shia neighbors at this time of disaster? When the nation of Iraq faces possible civil war? When tiny but aggressive local groups like the Islamic Thinkers seek to provoke the Shia at their religious processions? When we Muslims face further division and weakening? Why would leaders not be present to enter into dialogue among Muslims? Ongoing dialogue is urgently needed.

As Iranian President Khatami has declared, “From an ethical perspective, the paradigm of dialogue among civilizations requires that we abandon the will-to-power and instead pursue compassion, understanding, and love. The ultimate goal of dialogue among civilizations is not dialogue in and of itself, but attaining empathy and compassion
We could know ourselves by taking a step away from ourselves and embarking on a journey away from self and homeland and eventually attaining a more profound appreciation of our true identity.”

As the Persian poet Hafez of Shiraz put it: “No ineffable clamor reverberates in the grand heavenly dome more sweetly than the sound of love.” But love in action requires exchange of intimacies; that is, building trust and understanding. As human beings we can remember our basic shared humanity, and keep humble with each reminder of our mortality and lack of being-knowledge. As the British Poet Percy Shelley reminds us all,
"Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, / Stains the white radiance of eternity, / Until death tramples it to fragments.” But why serve death and destruction?

Insha’Allah Muslims will be known once again as builders not just of pleasure domes of local dictators, or the domes of nuclear reactors but of greenhouses, markets and mosques expanding outward in an opening circle of creation.