"Should We Forgive Muslims for 9/11?"

Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne
September 19, 2009

Over the summer anti-immigrant feelings were fanned, and then before the anniversary of 9/11 anti-Muslim hysteria threatened to rage out of control as we witnessed the drama around a mosque near Ground Zero and a threatened Quran burning in Florida.  In response President Obama announced, “The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and that they will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”  The UU Association’s Standing on the Side of Love campaign urged us to vocally support religious freedom, and help shape the debate by standing up for our highest ideals.   We believe no one should be denied freedom or equality because of who they are, regardless of national origin or religion.  But, as much as we like to talk about our principles, I don’t see a lot of support for immigrants or hear calls for including Islam in our eclectic mix of religious sources.  We may think we believe in religious freedom in this country, but I sense that when it comes to Islam, our hearts aren’t really in it.

I know why.  It’s 9/11.  Before 9/11, we didn’t pay much attention to Islamic extremism.  Yes a few UU women brought the Taliban’s oppression of women to out attention, and there were other disturbing signs  of it, but mostly it was happening over there in the Middle East - not something we had to confront up close or personally.  We paid a high price for keeping it at a distance.  We weren’t prepared when it came home with the attacks on 9/11, and we have been paying a high price in lives and treasure ever since.  Who can blame us for being angry, really angry, at the perpetrators of such violence?  Large numbers of people in America don’t want to have anything to do with Muslims and refuse to accept the idea their religion be accepted here.  As religious liberals, we have to stand for religious freedom, but can even we participate in a serious effort at harmonizing relations with Islam while our soldiers are still deployed in two wars in the Muslim world, wars started in response to 9/11?  While there have been some efforts at improving understanding and acceptance of Muslims in the US, I don’t think we can make substantial progress unless and until we begin the work of forgiveness of Muslims for 9/11.  I don’t think we can afford to avoid this particular work of forgiveness any longer.
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Is it possible for us to see our enemies in a new light that makes forgiveness possible?  We need only look at the example of Judea Pearl to see that it is.  His son, Daniel was covering the so-called “war on terror” for the Wall Street Journal in 2002 when he ventured into Pakistan retracing the steps of the “shoe bomber,” when he was abducted.  Pleas for his release came to naught, and his captors recorded his beheading and released the sickening video to a horrified world.  In response to Daniel’s murder, his family created the Daniel Pearl Foundation, for the promotion of cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music and innovative communications.  One of the foundation;‘s programs is “The Daniel Pearl Dialogue for Muslim-Jewish Understanding , a series of personal yet public conversations between Judea Pearl, and Dr. Akbar Ahmed, Chair of Islamic Studies at American University.  Ahmed and Pearl believe reconciliation between Muslims and Jews can be achieved through frank and respectful dialogue.”

How did Judea Pearl do it?  I don’t think I could.  I’d hate to think about how I would react if someone murdered my child.  I would want revenge.  Maybe I wouldn’t act out my desire for revenge, but I know I would feel it - just like any normal person would - just like we all did after the outrageous atrocities of 9/11 and again after Daniel Pearl’s murder.  The impulse to take revenge is a natural part of human makeup; we are wired, so to speak, to seek both revenge and forgiveness.  We know the benefits of forgiveness - promoting closer ties and mutual support in families and communities.  But revenge has social benefits, too.  The practice of revenge or even the threat of it can keep aggressive behavior in check or encourage others to take more responsibility in a group’s tasks or dangers.  Feeling a need for revenge is not a moral deficiency.  It is normal to desire revenge.  We just have to channel that desire into things that don’t do further harm.

Immediately following 9/11, From the Ashes, a bookcontaining spiritual responses to the attack, was published.  In it Bishop Desmond Tutu, recalling South African efforts at reconciliation, said, “Forgiveness and reconciliation are not cheap.  Forgiveness is not to condone or minimize the awfulness of an atrocity or wrong.  It is not opposed to justice, especially if it is not punitive justice but restorative justice, justice that does not seek primarily to punish but looks to restore a social equilibrium the atrocity has disturbed.  In our case, the process of reconciliation began long before the perpetrators were brought to book; it began when the victims were able to say, ‘We don’t want to  nurse grudges; we do not want to be embittered.’”  He asked, “What are you in the US willing to do?”  Nine years on, this question still needs an answer.

As we heard in the Thomas Moore reading, the process of forgiveness is complex - we might very well still harbor resentments while we begin to forgive, or we may forgive only to discover years later we still feel hurt  and angry.  It is normal to have a multitude of feelings all at the same time.   One feeling doesn’t cancel out another.  Right after 9/11, we were traumatized, our sense of outrage too strong to entertain forgiveness.  Then we became focused on the invasion of Afghanistan looking for Bin Laden, and then the lead up to the Iraq war, and then an election, and then Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo, and on and on, and we never felt justice was served or even that revenge was visited upon the perpetrators of 9/11.  We just never got back around to dealing with our hurt feelings about Muslims, and they pretty much kept their heads down out of the line of fire for a long time after 9/11.  Now we see them asserting their rights as US citizens, and we aren’t ready for that.  It is long past time for us to sort out our feelings and get on with the work of reconciliation and forgiveness.
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We have heard some characterize the fighting between the US military and its allies and Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein as a war of civilizations, the East vs the West, Christianity and Judaism against Islam, but it is not.  The late Rev. Forrest Church called it “a war of anarchy against civilization, of God-demented nihilists against the very fabric of world order.”  Neither the Islamic religion nor Muslim civilization are our enemy.  The first thing we need to do in our work toward forgiveness is to clarify who is and is not against us.  This makes perfect sense, but 9 years after 9/11 clarity about who or what we are against remains elusive.  Obviously, the vast majority of the world’s Muslims are not terrorists trying to destroy civilization or fighting against human social development.   So, if we can learn to see the difference between them and the actual perpetrators of violence and oppression, the work of creating harmony between the US and Muslims will be more productive.  There are Muslims we should embrace and Muslims we should push against.
We should have been against Saddam Hussein - he was a murderer of his own people and a tyrant.  We should put pressure on Al Qaeda to end its terrorist tactics.  We should demand the Egyptian and Iranian governments, the Saudi Royals and the Taliban stop their oppressive practices and come into compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  We should support International efforts to bring terrorists to justice.

In order to do these things effectively, we must understand what drives Al Qaeda and groups like it.  They become fundamentalist Islamists in reaction to the oppressions and the excesses of the Saudi Royals and the Saddam Husseins.  They are radicalized by the repression, jailing and torture of the Egyptian government.  They are taught humility in relation to God is the highest virtue, and that death in service to him is their highest duty.  Then, Al Qaeda demands they not accept humiliation at the hands of the infidels.  The teachings of the Quran are twisted and used to make young men feel it is their religious duty to kill.  These are the forces of extremism we must combat if we are ever to eliminate the threat from Jihadies.  And, when US forces blow up civilians, mistreat captives, and continue to provide military targets for insurgents, we transform local conflicts into wars against the United States and create more extremists all over the world.

In this war between civilization and anarchy our best hope lies in how well we unite the world against the forces of oppression which create extremists, not in the might of our military.  Our hope lies in how we maintain the civilizing freedoms and justice of our society, not in how mean we can act to people when we are occupying their country.  Our hope lies in treating every human life as sacred, not in demonizing Muslims, not even those who have become radicalized by militant extremists.  When war is raging, it is impossible to keep from perpetrating injustice.  It matters that we work hard to bring more love and caring into the world at this time.  As difficult as it may be, we must stop seeing all Muslims as enemies and work toward peace.
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After we accept that all Muslims are not our enemy, it will still be tempting to dehumanize those who are fighting against the US, calling them monsters, crazies, or worse.  This practice is a delusion, and it violates the first UU principle: We affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.  Those who fight us with acts of terror are not beasts; no, they are all too human.  We must admit that under similar circumstances we would be hard pressed not to do the same.  When we suffer from a terrible injustice, we feel the struggle not to retaliate in kind.  The urge to take revenge can seem sweet, and it takes our best efforts to resist taking part in a cycle of violence.  Only if we resist the temptation to demonize our enemies and try to see them as human beings just like us can we begin the work of atonement.

In my experience with self-help groups and literature, and the teachings of some Christian churches, I have often heard that the work of forgiveness is primarily personal, and internal.  Charles Griswold, who wrote, Forgiveness: a Philosophical Exploration, disagrees with this approach.  He said, “In these teachings it’s all about overcoming hatred for the sake of your own spiritual, moral and psychological well being.  When achieved, forgiveness thus understood often sounds as though it is a gift, or release from debt, bestowed upon the offender; the offender is presented with it, for the victim’s own sake as it were, even though the offender may have done nothing to earn it.”   Griswold thinks forgiveness requires steps on part of both the victim and the offender.

If we define forgiveness as coming to a place where we no longer hate the person or persons who harmed us, how do we get there?  If we simply forget the injury, then we have not forgiven.  So, forgiving requires remembering.  I feel quite sure we will never forget 9/11.  If we remember but take revenge, then also we are not forgiving.  So, forgiveness must refrain from revenge.  Griswold says, “Resentment or moral hatred may be rightly felt; indeed, we would surely think ill of a person who responded to injustice with indifference.  One should feel angry in response to wrongdoing; it can be a warranted emotion that expresses self-respect, a respect for moral principle, and the resolve to defend oneself.  Consequently, if forgiveness requires that resentment be forsworn, … It must be because the anger is no longer warranted….because the offender has taken steps to render that anger inappropriate.”

His ideas of steps the wrongdoer should take are similar to these Laws of Forgiveness given by the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides:

1. First - Admit wrongdoing - publicly
2. Show remorse
3. Publicly pledge to refrain from such wrong again
4. Give restitution to victims and charity to the community
5. Appeal for forgiveness - up to three times
6. and finally, shun the circumstances that gave rise to the wrong doing.

So, in the Jewish way, forgiveness isn’t free; it has to be earned by the both the offender and by the victim.  And now, both the US and the Muslim countries have been both perpetrators and victims of wrongdoing.  Reconciling our differences will certainly take the best efforts of all of us.
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Forgiveness is complex, we can have all kinds of valid feelings about it at the same time.  In the case of Muslims and the United States, there are many historical and ongoing factors that add to our difficulty in coming together as one.  Some people are still actively making things worse.  Still, we must try.  “Perfection isn’t necessary in order to seek to forgive or to be forgiven.  It is a journey - hobbled by vices and foibles.  The important thing is that we try.”
We are neither at the beginning nor the end of the process of atonement between the US and the Muslim world.  We are on a journey on which right now we have to worry about acts of terror.  If we don’t change our direction this path could stretch on indefinitely.  So, on purely utilitarian grounds, if we want to make our lives safer, we should pursue atonement.  As individuals, we know that without forgiveness, our lives can be miserable, but there is another reason we should pursue it.  That is because “forgiveness is a virtue and expresses a commendable trait of character.”  Forgiveness helps us take actions in accordance with our ideals of the moral good, “namely those of truth-telling, responsibility-taking, spiritual and moral growth, reconciliation, and love.”   Forgiveness then is about what we are turning ourselves into, and it is about bringing peace to our world.  We should wait no longer to pursue atonement with the Muslim world.
Go, and make peace.

www.danielpearl.org/about_us/dialogue.html
Gottlieb, Roger S. “The Mystery of Forgiveness,” Tikkun (Berkeley: Jan 2010) 63.
Moore, Thomas. “The Complexity of Forgiveness,” in Briggs, Kenneth, The Power of Forgiveness, Fortress (Minneapolis: 2008) 73-74.
Griswold, Charles L. “Forgiveness and Apology: What, When, Why?,” Tikkun, (Berkeley: Mar 2008) 23.
Griswold, 22.
Briggs, Kenneth, The Power of Forgiveness, Fortress (Minneapolis: 2008) 22.
Briggs, 21.