Reactive Nation

The Muslim American population is easily one of the most educated, affluent, and spiritually adept of the American populations.  While any of these attributes — education, wealth, and especially spirituality — should be sufficient to liberate the Muslim American population from the shackling effects of those dark elements of American culture, for some reason we have instead shackled ourselves.  Perhaps our education, wealth, and spirituality are false.  After all, the mosques are empty at dawn.

But, a few weeks ago, I was vilified by a number of people for arguing that the only reason we care about the Palestinians of Gaza was not because they were human, not because they were Muslim, not because they were in need.  Because if any of these reasons were our motivations for caring for them, we would have cared about the Gazans for months, not weeks.  For if any of these reasons were our motivations, we would have also cared about the people of Darfur, or the people of Zimbabwe, or the people of Chicago.

But, the reality is that we cared only about the people of Gaza because the media made us care about them.  And, shortly after the media forgot about the people of Gaza, so too did we.

These are the same people who were applauding and thanking Gen. Colin Powell for his very wonderful statements in the latter weeks of the 2008 Presidential campaign, criticizing Republicans for their bigotry against Muslims.  These are the same people who quickly forgot that Gen. Colin Powell was a participant in the lies that lead to the War on Iraq, resulting the deaths of thousands of Americans, and tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.  Why did we celebrate Gen. Powell?  Because the media put the spotlight on him.

And, now here we are, in this hyped campaign, speaking out for domestic violence, at the price of vilifying Muzammil Hassan, who stands accused, not convicted, but accused of the brutal, horrific murder of his wife.   We did not care about terrorism until the spotlight was on us.  And, we did not care about domestic violence until the spotlight was on us.

That is not to paint Muzammil Hassan as a saint.  Hell no.  That is not to disregard the death of his wife.  Hell no.  That is not to disregard the suffering of their surviving children.  Hell no.  But, Muzammil Hassan is innocent until proven guilty.

And, it may be that Muzammil Hassan is innocent of this horrific crime.  And, it may be that he is guilty, yet because of weaknesses in the legal system, he escapes.  But, if we do believe in Divine Justice, then we do know that both Colin Powell and Muzammil Hassan are answerable to their Creators for any guilt.  And, so are we.

We did not care about domestic violence until the spotlight was on us.  And, we will stop caring about domestic violence when the spotlight shifts to something else.  We will forget them as quickly as we have now forgotten Gaza, Darfur, and those among our friends who are in need.

It seems that the media told us that there were two types of Muslim:  Sunni and Shi’i.  Those of us who know a bit about Islam know that there is more than Sunni and Shi’i, starting with the Ibadi.  But, those of us who are honest about American Islam know that the largest sect is neither Sunni, nor Shi’i, nor Ibadi, nor heterodox.  The largest Muslim sect is see-enn-enn-i.  cnni.  We so often turn to CNN to tell us what to believe, how to believe it, and how much to believe in it.  And, for that, may God forgive us.

And Allah knows best.