My (earnest, irate) thoughts

I had a lovely conversation with a wonderful Christian lady yesterday. Though I was supposed to be the journalist, she was more talented at digging for information… she got me to tell my whole life story, including how I met my Turkish husband, Yusuf, in an ESL class and my journey into Islam. Tragically, I turned a heart-wrenching, difficult process into one long anecdote: “Yeah, my dad said ‘OK, you’re looking a little Arabicized’” and “Sometimes I wish I could tell people, ‘I’m not oppressed, I swear!’” She burst out laughing.

But it was nice, to joke around about stereotypes with someone I felt an immediate kinship with. She was such a good-hearted person, and so interested in what would cause a sunny-haired feminist of Irish ancestry to say La ilahe ill’Allah, Muhammad’ur rasul’Allah. I was embarrassed to be standing in her territory (a Christian indoor attraction for families), so I summed up my decision with an offhand, “It’s all basically the same, with one more book, one more prophet.” And I said, “The stuff we see on TV… it’s politics, not religion.” She looked overawed. I could almost see the veil falling from her eyes. We chatted about the sacrifice of Ibrahim (Abraham), the Torah of Musa (Moses), the Psalms of Dawud (David), the Gospel of Isa (Jesus), Yunus (Jonah) and the Whale, Nuh (Noah) and the Flood. After that, I was high as a kite, hopeful she would one day pick up a Qur’an and read it out of curiosity.

I was very moved by the Christians there. They were kind and good and curious. I could see the shining white light of God in their faces. And they were the well-traveled sort, discontent to stay put when others suffer, who have been missionaries in far-flung lands like Papua New Guinea, and who have translated the New Testament into little-known languages like Hawaiian Pidgin [if you’ve never seen Da Jesus Book, you have not truly lived. ‘Jesus chose his twelve apostles’ becomes ‘Jesus ben pick his 12 spesho guys.’]

Speaking of inter-faith dialogue, I watched a show on DVD last night, NOW with Bill Moyers on religious fundamentalism. His guest was religious scholar Karen Armstrong, a former nun who calls herself a “freelance monotheist” (I love that) because she draws from all three of the traditions of Abraham, her native Christianity, as well as Judaism and Islam. In fact, after her devastating experience in a convent, it was a trip to Jerusalem, and the uneasy, vibrant jostling of the faiths there, that renewed her interest in religion.

Armstrong is my hero. This woman is so well-read, so bright, so articulate, so brilliant in describing what the real issues are. I haven’t seen anyone of any faith, including Islam, describe the Muslim heart so well. She talks about good religion and bad religion (and she doesn’t let American Christian fundies off the hook). She explains the Muslim heart and mind as if she were a Palestinian refugee herself.

And the whole time Moyers has this pinched look on his face, saying ignorant things (”I keep hearing Islam is a religion of peace, but what about 9/11?!™”). And she’s so polite, she doesn’t even roll her eyes, she just shifts it back to how there is a religion [here], and there are 20th-century reactionary politics springing from fear of Western foreign policies toward the Middle East [there].

She explained that before the 20th century, the top intellectuals in the Muslim world were completely enamored of the West — and were calling for their own societies to embrace technology and democracy. Then Britain and France began carving up the Ottoman Empire and displacing Palestinians. Then America began funding Israel’s brand of state-sponsored terrorism. Before the 1960s, there was no such thing as Islamic fundamentalism, which is ‘bad religion’ springing from ‘bad politics’. I have seen the enemy, and he is me. Fundamentalism is everywhere, poisoning everything. It is not us versus them. It is us versus us.

The prophet Muhammad said, “The ultimate jihad (struggle) is to win our nafs (soul).” It’s like Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh said, “I see that the real enemy of man is not man. The real enemy is our ignorance, discrimination, fear, craving and violence.”

Another one of my favorite hadiths is this: “Spread peace, feed people and do some devotional practice, and you will enter Paradise without any trouble.” Karen Armstrong is truly a spreader of light and peace. May God uplift her spirit and shower radiant blessings upon her.