Opening Up When the Heat is On

In a traditional Muslim culture, people will leave their homes in warm weather to sleep on porches or to gather at the mosque to sit and read in the cool of the tall tiled halls, or around the fountain. But in this capitalist, materialist culture, we see our families, friends and neighbors isolated in air-conditioned rooms, and instead of the fountain, they are watching the lies and seductions flickering from television—a very different vibration.

Heat is also a form of energy. Some of us find it uncomfortable. And in this material world air conditioning has become one of the biggest consumers of energy. One fifth of the energy we use goes to cooling buildings, and the refrigerants used also contribute to global warming. With six percent of the world’s population, Americans consume 40 percent of the world’s refrigerants. Some of us think we must have air-conditioning. But most of the world is too poor, and goes without air-conditioning all the time.

Fully opening our beings to the energy of the invisible, we human beings can become much more than our little minds and desires. But through habits and distraction, we waste energy, and you and I fail to become what we might both materially and spiritually.

Some of us waste energy thoughtlessly and some of us thoughtfully. Energy is lost when our being is in disharmony. Energy is lost when we are stressed, tense or caught in negative emotions. As Muslims we know we must work for inner unity if we are to be able to work collectively for a wiser, more truly Islamic community. It is a struggle, not a walk in the park. How can it be done? And do our leaders’ khotbas help us in this struggle and to help the family transmit the spirit—the spiritual energy-- of religion to the next generation?

Family life, important as it is, can become a vehicle of materialism as much as Islamic spirituality. A family can transmit authoritarian and unthinking behavior as much as wisdom and sharing and forgiveness. The energies vary-- while younger Muslims are napping with Napster, which they prefer to actual experience.

Some young people will look scornfully at someone who does not have “nice things”. How have they grown up with such materialist thinking? Materialism is often confused with success, and not only in immigrant families. In this context, it is of course not a bad thing that young people are motivated to succeed, but on what level—and will they ever be satisfied? And when inevitably it is time to face human limitations, how shining faces shrivel into sour humiliation! Better for them, for us all, is the peace of humility, if we can find and stay with it.

It is worth discussing materialism with our friends and families. It is important to consider our collective spiritual energies. It is also worth considering the family’s “carbon footprint”—how much energy our life requires.

For example, as a city resident, I do not drive, and I also have no television reception, no air conditioning and I keep electric bills to 40 dollars a month. While comfortable in global terms, that is probably well below the American average. But how can I do better? One choice can reduce my footprint; not buying fruit and food that is shipped across country, requiring trucks and fuel. One can try to buy from local farmers to cut back on cross-country traffic’s impact on the environment.

Another choice is to spend more time talking to neighbors or at the mosque. Let’s overcome the urge to go underground into our cells like radicals. Yes, Presidential Candidate Guiliani is courting the fear vote by invoking the recent, half-baked “terror plots’ among a few Albanians, Trinidadians and Guyanese. It is almost like law enforcement is trying to de-link the “threat” from ethnic identity and specific interest groups and instead stick it to the religion itself. But Muslims can and should know better. Let’s reach out to engage with fellow Americans now that there are some movements for positive response, beyond law enforcement and the politics of fear.

On May 28, Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that, “the nightmare of the Bush years won't really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn't happened yet. Here's the way it ought to be: When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a "movement" that "has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us," he should be treated as a lunatic. When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of "Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda" wants to "bring down the West," he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.”

Though that has not happened yet, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said last week that President Bush’s “terror doctrine” had proved counterproductive. Mr. Edwards presented a plan last week — which he dubbed "A Strategy to Shut Down Terrorists and Stop Terrorism Before It Starts" calling for a 10,000-person "Marshall Corps," like the Peace Corps, to stabilize weak nations though health and development programs and micro-lending and help ensure that terrorism does not take root.

There are "thousands committed to violence," Edwards said, and "We have to offer them a hand to our side instead of a shove to the other side of that fence." Mr. Edwards has also called for withdrawing troops from Iraq and has called on Congress to cut off funding for the war.

Insha’Allah, Muslims can also offer a hand. You and I can stop wasting energy, and can spend more time in community space. Let go of fear. We can be both secure in faith and more transparent. Isn’t it time to open up? Positive change starts with a peaceful relationship with a very un-peaceful world.

Towards Greener Pastures

The recognized heroes of 9/11 –police, firemen and recovery workers—have long been cast aside, and life moves on for most. Life speeds towards its end-- especially if you are suffering from serious health problems caused by post 9/11 air quality, which Mayor Guiliani and EPA head Christine Whitman denied in the face of facts.

Last week I attended a NYCOSH dinner honoring diverse people who had confronted the lies about 9/11 health. The event reminded me that unions, local power brokers and public servants can indeed make a difference in advocating for monies necessary to treat serious emergencies. However, beyond New York City, the scandalously slow response to Hurricane Katrina victims continues, with a new environmental insult-- toxic trailers.

Congress has been made aware of reports that some of the emergency trailers contain toxic levels of formaldehyde. The National Council of Churches called for an investigation, “For almost two years, victims of these storms have made FEMA trailers their home having lost almost all of their earthly possessions. Now many of those same people are finding that the place they thought would be a refuge…is now potentially causing them, their children and other family members to suffer respiratory and other health problems— This is just unacceptable and appalling.”

But are we surprised? Since the tragic failure to install al Gore instead of Halliburton as President, the US government has not ratified the Koyoto Treaty to curb emissions that cause global warming. Do we really expect poor people’s health to be of interest? The ugly American Right is hard at work malling America. Nothing is safe-- not a red river valley or a rolling pasture, a rocky mountain or a sandy shore.

The National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program is offering a new creation-friendly building guide entitled, "Building A Firm Foundation: A Creation Friendly Guide for Churches." The NCC Eco-Justice Program also invites submissions for a book examining ecological theology. (www.ncccusa.org/). But where are we Muslims? Do we care about the environment? Or are we all too busy planning to blow up gas lines?

Recently I was asked to find local Muslims to attend the Interfaith Center of New York’s Marshal Meyer’s retreat-- Cultivating Hope: Planting Seeds of Environmental Justice in NYC. I realized that I am not aware of local imams who have made this their issue. I hope I will hear of some? Syed Hossein Nasr has written eloquently on the environment but he is in Washington DC. We need more of us to care. I do hope that after their graduations at least some of our brothers and sisters are planning to work in green fields.

On June 1, Neil MacFarquar wrote in the New York Times that, “As the first generation of American-born Muslims begins graduating from college in significant numbers, with a swelling tide behind them, some congregations are beginning to seek native imams who can talk about religious and social issues that seem relevant to young people, like dating and drugs. Gihan Zahran, 43, an Egyptian immigrant, remembers a previous Arab imam who even told a much perplexed teenager that wearing Nike shoes was “haram,” or forbidden in Arabic, without explaining why.”

The article was an important reminder of a serious problem—that many of our imams are not equipped to offer practical guidance and informed interpretation to today’s Muslim youth and families. Two Fridays ago I attended a mosque in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge, and the Khotba was in angry Arabic. It was painful. It is not helpful that many old-school Arab leaders seem to stereotype and blame all Jews equally.

While I agree that Muslims need to organize more effectively around Palestinian rights, I do not wish to mix my worship of Allah with such extreme negativity. More light! There are so many reasons to be angry and fearful. The USA is already in Somalia with Task Force 150 bombing “radicals” and killing US and Swedish and Yemeni volunteers and of course Somalis. We all need more sunlight, and less Fire!

And what are the paths through fire to love and family? Who can guide us? How do we find our own ways through red river valleys and along the sandy shores? We cannot standardize all teaching, nor support the malling of Islam. Humanity comes in many shapes and sizes, strengths and weaknesses. We need very specific and individual guidance. There are compassionate accommodations to human needs –Islamic ones, ranging from multiple marriages under certain conditions, to (possibly) temporary marriages among the Shia. There have also been non-Islamic ones, like the Hippies’ summer of Love, the utopian experiments in the 19th Centuries. But that dream is faded; Free Love has now been replaced by Sex that Sells. We must beware of the manipulations of our capitalist merchant class, afflicting all around us with desire.

The Poet Dante celebrated the tragic damnation of two lovers, Paolo and Francesca, doomed to ride the whirlwind of their desires for all eternity. And yet the forces of repression and inhibition create their own unhealthy climate, and to save us, cocoon us inside toxic trailers.

And in our trailers all families are not the same. Family life is not always healthy. The youngest detainee Omar Ahmed Khadr has been in Guantanamo since he was arrested at age 15. He comes from a so-called “al Qaeda family” originating in Canada before moving to Afghanistan. According to prosecutors: “All the children were indoctrinated into the al Qaeda way of thinking.” However, after being “captured bloodied and bullet riddled”, half-blind Omar will now be “tried” as an adult, a practice increasingly common in the USA as well as in the legal hellhole of Guantanamo.

Child exploitation comes in so many forms—child soldiers, child labor, child camel jockeys, and children detainees denied international rights. May Allah grant us the wisdom to find our inner child, and to speak more gently, with more compassion. The seed is the future of the flower. The Child is father of the Man.