Another Springtime, with Dad

Another springtime, thank God. Light dazzles in the gardens; the breeze now cool, now warm, is fragrant; with the senses renewed, we also share a collective sense of miracle and hope.

I come from the café meeting with my father. Pushed out of the Pentagon over fifty years ago for being too politically progressive, he has been journalist and writer for many years. May Allah allow us all to continue the good work of our fathers! We discuss immanence. He is a serious scholar of literature as well as news. He is intellectually honest, too honest to claim knowledge of God that is not his, to put in words what is not namable. His own skeptic, logical positivist way is not entirely set in stone but it is his planet of reference. I must deeply respect his mind, sharp after over eighty years, resisting the frailties of the body.

Some of my received wisdom shatters like wind against that stone of strong humanity. We discuss the news and he is skeptical of all. He sees the distraction and the sloppiness of much reporting. And not even the Sufi stories I share with him impress him much. Who dares to sit in judgment of their father? And my faith does not shatter against that stone, but is slowly sharpened and made more flexible. I feel sure in this springtime warmth that there is a Prophet for Logical Positivists too, for honest men love Truth. And I love my father too.

We are not our fathers, and yet we are. So let us keep in mind the ideals and vision that went before us, the founding fathers of all things, great and small. This newspaper also had a founding father. The Mirror seeks reflection of the light of Truth— the Creator in the creation, allowing the reader to work towards objectivity as we scan the opinion and controversy of the spinning world. Yes, may Allah allow us all to continue the good work of our fathers, in new ways and new seasons!

Some things must change. Now it is Rumsfeld is the one who should be pushed out of the Pentagon. Despite the unusual efforts of top generals, the White House has resisted holding the Secretary accountable for the disastrous outcome of the Iraq war. At the same time, a December 20, 2005 Army Inspector General's report, obtained by Salon.com this past week, contains a sworn statement by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt that implicates Secretary Rumsfeld in the abuse of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtani. And with Rumsfeld supervision, another detainee was forced to "stand naked in front of a female interrogator, was accused of being a homosexual, and was forced to wear women's underwear and to perform 'dog tricks' on a leash." It cannot be blamed only on the officers carrying out the policies.

Yet the White House itself is also guilty and too close to these same decisions. Even detainee abuse and torture were authorized by the policies and secret executive orders of the Bush White House, which is truly Dar al Harb. These policy makers institute cruel and unusual procedures in defiance of constitutional norms, indefinite detentions in the name of an unending “War on Terror.” How the military industrial complex must rejoice!


Interesting that some Muslim leaders still are sympathetic to Republicans in office. Why, oh why is leading Islamophobe Congressman Peter King the Co-Chairman of the Bangladesh Congressional Caucus? Despite his smears of Muslim leaders, his leadership in badly-written anti-immigrant legislation, his leading opposition to bilingual voting ballots, his paranoid politics as Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, his role in the Republican party?

What is behind this relationship, is it simply the foolishness of our leaders, or do they really extract concessions from him? That I truly doubt. Authoritarians flock together, even when interests diverge, because they speak the same language of repression and strong arm gamesmanship. If this serves the House of Peace, I would like to know how.

Like many Americans, we are distracted by sensationalist media stories. For some it is murder trials in North Carolina. For others, news concerns the lifestyles of Brad and Britney, or the tragic plight of a kitten trapped between buildings, which last week become a national and international story. After community help, Molly the cat has found her liberation. But have we found freedom from such media manipulation? Are our political choices also manipulated easily by such human interest topics that one can argue in the office, mini controversies like gay marriage and such, like cartoons and other distractions? Let us debate such issues but please not forget about more serious matters that demand much more serious and intelligent leaders in government.

The President of Iran plays the same cynical game. He blames the usual suspects—zionists—for everything. He claims that detainee abuse of the Bush gang proves the emptiness of Democracy. But surely that argument is like claiming that terrorism comes from Islam. These are false and stupid political arguments—the extremists that push and pull us from one side to another.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that Israel was a "constant threat" and predicted that it was on the verge of "being eliminated." His government then gives 50 million to Hamas. The next day, there is a terrorist strike at an Israeli Falafel restaurant. A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, says, "The resistance is a legal and natural reaction to the Israeli crimes, and the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves." How is killing men and women eating their food appropriate “self defense”? No, not all Israelis are soldiers on duty. Collective punishment is wrong. We must all loudly condemn such false and self-serving reasoning, as it has seriously hurt the reputation of our religion.

Can we blame the media entirely, when they run after negative stories; daily bloody images from Iraq; the repeat viewing of the dram of 9/11, most recently the haunting transcript of United Airlines Flight 93 at the show trial of the monster Moussaoui; the Christian convert being threatened with execution in Afghanistan. Yes some media has an unfriendly agenda, but here are so many negative images to choose from. And these images affect the perceptions of our neighbors. Until recently, American views of their Muslim neighbors had been improving. A Pew Research Center poll released in July 2005, after the London terrorist bombings, showed that 55% of Americans had a favorable opinion of Muslim Americans. But a Washington Post/ABC News poll released in March showed that a majority of Americans have a negative view of Islam.

As Muslims we cannot deny the bad news. The challenge is to face it and not turn away. We must look steadily in the mirror and prepare for the day. What can we do about the face of the world that stares back in fear and confusion? Let us reflect on that seriously. There is still springtime, offering us a sign of hope—not merely for our false distraction. Morning light. Wake up. And time for work. Not forgetting.