Have we been here before?

6 April 2005 | Michael Carl

[MichaelCarl]

“Haven’t we been here before?” by Michael Carl

A new report released by a presidential commission says that America’s intelligence agencies were “dead wrong,” about Iraq and the Weapons of Mass Destruction. While any consequences for this latest report are a subject for debate, it is certain that the report will obviously provide further ammunition for President Bush’s political opponents. Yet, the whole scenario of political turmoil in a Middle Eastern nation coupled with election year politics in the United States is an all too familiar scenario. In their respective centuries, Presidents Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and George W. Bush, in their ’04 reelection years, have had to deal with a crisis situation in the Middle East. In each case, an American president felt compelled to risk the future of American Middle Eastern policy, the lives of American citizens, American prestige abroad and his own political future by flexing American military muscle. There are five things that Americans should learn as a result of the three, centuries-apart incidents: First, Americans need to realize that to some extent, the Middle East will always be a volatile region. The foreign policy eggheads in Foggy Bottom must come to terms with the fact that the Islamic World has a very distinct world view, a world view that is steeped in the Qur’an and Islamic Law. Second, America’s foreign policy aficionados have to understand the Qur’an and what it has to say about Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Third, the policy wonks in Foggy Bottom have to get a firm grasp on reality and understand that modernity, which to most in Asia is synonymous with becoming Americanized, is to be resisted. The fourth point to be grasped is somewhat like the third: While most Americans and other Westerners eagerly embrace modern technology, Islamic societies slowly adjust new technological advances to fit within the Muslim context. And fifth, American policy advisors and Americans in general must understand that Islamism, fundamentalist Islam, the Islamic jihad and the clerics who issue the fatwas are subtle variations of the same phenomenon, all informed by the Qur’an and steeped in Muslim traditions. In his book, The Crisis of Islam, Bernard Lewis quotes from an early Hadith thought to have been issued by Muhammad himself:

Jihad is your duty under any ruler, be he godly or wicked. A day and night of fighting on the frontier is better than a month of fasting and prayer.

And later in the same Hadith:

He who dies without having taken part in a campaign dies in a kind of unbelief. Learn to shoot, for the space between the mark and the archer is one of the gardens of Paradise. Paradise is in the shadow of swords.

Such passages give us an insight as to the Islamic concept of Imperialism. Bernard Lewis continues by saying that Muslims have traditionally held that expansion through military conquest was justified by the Qur’an and subsequent Hadiths. For a Muslim, capturing territory and bringing in new converts into the sphere of Islam is not only justified, it’s encouraged. However, a Western nation that attempts to expand is regarded as an imperialist aggressor and should be resisted at all costs. Do these realities mean we turn our backs on the region? Do we become a nation of “Islamophobes”? Certainly not. However, we would do well to heed the advice Samuel Huntington offers in "Who Are We?" Huntington argues that Americans should never give in to forces that urge us to compromise on who we are. Indeed, he says we should more passionately shout our heritage of faith and freedom from every housetop in the world. That history and heritage built a nation that is still a beacon of liberty to the world. We became that light because our Forefathers came to these shores, not as political and religious refugees, but as “missionaries” if you will. They had a vision to build a land that would become a “shining city on a hill,” and immediately dedicated themselves to that noble task. For this light to continue to shine, people of faith must become active in the political process. People of faith must refuse to be bullied into silence. People of faith must stand firm and never waiver in their commitment to live a life that radiates with the calm assurance in the rightness of the cause. That confidence in our God-given task is what Jesus so eloquently proclaimed in His Sermon on the Mount: “’Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.’” That’s what our Forefathers believed as they landed on these shores. That same faith and that same confidence in our heritage will hold this nation together and preserve us through any crisis.

Michael Carl holds two Master’s Degrees, pastors a church in Wakefield, MA, is a free-lance writer, and president of The Heritage Alliance, a public policy group headquartered in Lynn, Massachusetts.