Where Are the Snakes?

Where Are The Snakes? On Dirty Tricks and Dirty Bombers.
Snakes on a plane. Perhaps the evidence will convict them. Who knows?

Since the arrests of the 24 suspects in the airplane bombing plot, British police have searched “69 houses, flats and business premises … 400 computers, 200 cellphones and 8,000 data storage devices.” But as the New York Times noted on August 22, “the credibility of the allegations will not be tested until the accused are taken before a jury — a trial not expected to begin for at least two years.”

So far, 11 suspects have been charged. Since under British law, once charged, people may not be interrogated further, the other detainees remain under a 28-day counter-terrorism law. British officials are still trying to extend this to 90 days. And US officials are also advocating this long period of detention.

Right wing pundits like Christopher Caldwell are suggesting that maybe the “age of civil liberties is over” and that we get used to it. Left wing pundits like Bob Herbert wring their hands. He notes the misuse of material witness law to detain Abdullah Higazy, falsely accused of having an aviation radio after 9/11 and then placed in solitary detention for months, pressured to “confess” and then charged with lying to the FBI. It was a miracle that the true owner of the aviation radio, a pilot, showed up to claim his property months later. What if he had not done so?

And yet, despite all indications, there are some independent minds still thinking in the US Courts. Last week, Judge decided that the Bush administration had violated the Constitution, notably the Fourth Amendment, in ordering the NSA to bypass FISA and wiretap the USA.

Also last week, Judge Cooke threw out conspiracy charges against Jose Padilla, the one-time Chicago gang member reportedly plotting to detonate a “dirty bomb” on American streets. Declared an enemy combatant, Padilla was held in a brig in South Carolina for three and a half years without being charged; but Judge Cooke decided to drop some of the charges because: “Charging the defendants with a single offense multiple times is violative of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment.” Why so many dirty tricks against a “Dirty bomber?” In fact many of those other allegations against him have already been dropped.

So many men and families treated unfairly and even abused. And yet O Muslims we all need to be careful not to overstate the innocence of all the defendants since 9/11. Some are surely criminals. Be careful about the facts. But one thing we know—that all deserve justice, in Islam and in the American system as it is supposed to be.

But will the people of Lebanon have justice? Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran wrote almost 100 years ago; “I am told that the tragedy of your country is only a part of the tragedy of the world; the tears and the blood shed in your country are only drops in the river of blood and tears pouring night and day in the valleys and plains of the world. This may be true, but the tragedy of my people is a silent one conceived in the heads of men, whom we should call snakes and serpents.”
Gibran noted that his people “died in silence because the ears of humanity had became deaf to their cry… they died because the hellish serpent had seized all their flocks and all the harvest of their fields.”

How to fight the serpent? There are many snakes on this plane. The serpent is sin, as well as our external enemies, as well as war itself. Then, how do we conduct the Big Jihad against the slimy secret snakes in service of shaitan?

Reflect. Some thoughtful and conscious men have defined all sin as forms of “wasting spiritual energy.” And when committing sins, the spirit does throw away its energy on desires, blind emotional reaction. We Muslims do not have to become spiritual athletes like the saints to know how to be healthy. The proper ratio between energy expenditure and energy storage will keep us from “wasting energy.” We will then be able to maintain spiritual and moral strength as individuals and as a collective, with Allah’s help.

When Ramadan comes, will we be ready to work to free ourselves from our small sinful habits? Like head and body lice, like tiny snakes, these sins keep us restless and out of a state of peace. Even upon its imaginary throne, the False Self rattles its chains with a sound like a rattlesnake; attached to smoking, nervous negativities, fears and reactive emotions. How to get the energy to break free?

As Muslims we can develop spiritual muscle or spiritual fat. The muscle makes us strong and conscious; the fat insulates and carries us through our times of hunger. We can become too fat by being inactive in front of the TV; and we can become spiritually fat by becoming passive in our practice, lazy in our understanding and easily led. Who and what are we following in this hour, this minute? Or do we imagine that we are only following Allah? Where is this plane going and did anyone give you baggage to carry? Where are the snakes?