Islam  Hijacked

Introduction

Too dead to come

“Between me and thee lies an immense abyss, so that I cannot cross over to you and you cannot cross over to me.”  I   always chuckle at bit at this somber passage. The Capuchin Franciscan Order to which I belong (for a good fifty years) occasionally summons us to convene for various reasons, sometimes worthwhile.  The man in “Communications” sends you a summons, which sometimes includes a return card that might ask: Do you need over-night accommodations? Is there some special diet you must follow?  Or some other pertinent question.  Sometimes the return card is a device used to make sure that you come.  Once a senior friar had not sent in his card, and  “Communications” caught that, and sent him one of those canned notifications: “Dear Father so and so, you have not notified us of your coming.  Your presence at the meeting is very important to us, because your great wisdom has so much to contribute.”   To which the superior of the senior friar wrote back in the name of the senior friar: “Between me and thee lies an immense abyss, so that I cannot cross over to you and you cannot cross over to me.” The senior friar had no intention of going to the meeting, because he was dead and buried a long time ago!

 

I

The abyss between Lazarus and Dives

Well, back to the somber parable. There is the poor man, Lazarus, down at the gate, starving and begging for crumbs, covered with sores that the dogs are licking.  And there is the rich man, named “Dives” by tradition, dressed in purple, eating splendidly every day. What an immense abyss separated the two already in life! Then   Lazarus dies, and is carried by angels up to the bosom of Abraham. And Dives too dies, and is buried in hell. What an immense abyss   separated the two in death.

 

Today is not only the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time; it is also the 3rd Sunday after September 11.  It is the 3rd Sunday after that apocalyptic event which changed our lives forever, and launched us off into a New Era in which nothing will ever be “normal” again. Daily you and I see that mountainous heap of buildings, bodies, and human lives reduced to rubble in Lower Manhattan.  Daily we see and hear about the inconsolable grief all around, grief so intense and so mountainous that no number of trucks and no amount of time would ever be able to haul it away and bury it out of sight. All week long you and I, though we keep trying to get on with our lives, find ourselves returning over and over again to ground zero in Lower Manhattan.  It’s going on three weeks now since September 11, and we still find ourselves dazed, scared, depressed, and still trying at this moment of history to be children of light, people enlightened by reason and faith.  Because of all that, I was determined by hook or by crook to hold on again to September 11 at least for one more Sunday.  I was determined to find some connection with today’s parable. By hook or by crook I found it, and found it in the words of Lazarus: “Between me and thee lies an immense abyss.”

 

We’ve heard it over and over again these days, and I myself have just now said,  “After September 11, things will never be the same again.   It’ll be hard to return to normal.”   My Capuchin Franciscan confrere, Fr. John Celichowski, pastor of St. Benedict the Moor Church on State Street, in his homily last Sunday (which I received through e-mail) asked,  “Do we really want to return to `normal’?”  Then he lines up a list of negatives about us Americans:

 

Do you know that the CIA, our CIA, trained a lot of the people in Osama bin Laden’s organization?  Do we want to return to normal?

 

Do you know that, according to the United Nations, the richest 20 percent of our world’s population consume 80 percent of the earth’s resources? Do we want to return to normal?

 

Do you know that many poor countries suffer under enormous debts owed to the World Bank?  They can manage only to pay the interest on it.  And their dire need forces them to expend all their   time and energy to produce exports goods for us consumers instead of devoting themselves to the health care, education, sanitation, etc. of their people.  Do we want to return to normal?

 

The list of negatives goes on. Fr. John’s implication is this:  If you want to know why the terrorists hate us so immensely that they’re willing to plow a 767 with everyone aboard, themselves included, into the two towers at the World Trade Center, there’s your answer: “the immense abyss between me and thee,” between the poor man Lazarus and the rich man Dives, between Palestinians and Israeli, between a Third World and a First World.

 

 

II

 

The abyss between Osama and us

No doubt that is part of the terrorists’ rage against us. No doubt that’s one of the roots of their hatred. And it does indeed deserve to be addressed.  That’s precisely what all those ever-failing peace attempts in the Middle East are all about. But there is another root of their rage which is never adequately addressed, and which, I believe, is even more critical now, considering the immediacy and the enormity of this tragic historic moment. There is another abyss more immense even than the one between Lazarus and Dives, between rich and poor, and that’s the abyss between Osama bin Laden and us, the abyss that lies between all those who march to the beat of his drum and all those who march to the beat of our drum; an immense abyss   dividing us into two worlds, the Western World on the one hand and Islam on the other, but   Islam, we hasten to say, as hijacked by the hijackers, Islam as hijacked by religious fanatics. Yes, before the terrorists hijacked us, they hijacked Islam.

 

 

Islam

What is this “Islam hijacked by the hijackers?”  Well, first of all, what is Islam?  In this historic moment of ours, we hear the word “Islam” over and over again. So we know it is a very important word, but very likely most of us have only the vaguest idea of what it means. But if it’s all that important, then we, Children of Light, should want to have some basically adequate idea of what it means.

 

What is Islam? Well, first of all, it is an Arabic word meaning “to surrender.” And “Muslim”(Moslem) comes from that word “Islam,” and it means “one who   surrenders completely to God.”

 

What is Islam? Islam is that whole host of nations standing firmly upon   Shahada: that’s a simple, personal, ardent, one-line profession of faith that “Only Allah is God, and Muhammad is his Messenger.”

 

Islam is that whole host of nations that falls to its knees five times a day (dawn, noon, afternoon, sundown, and evening) for ritual prayer facing Mecca, the holy birthplace of Muhammad. That’s called Salat.

 

Islam is the Haji:  that once-in-a-life-time pilgrimage that every able Muslim makes to Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad.  Islam is Mecca and Medina, the two most sacred shrines for every Muslim.

Islam is the mosque, the Muslim’s synagogue or church.

 

Islam is Ramadan: the great fast that obliges the Muslim to abstain from all food from dawn to dusk during the whole month of Ramadan.

 

Islam is the veil that modestly covers the bodies and the presence of women.

 

 Islam as hijacked?

That’s some basically adequate idea of Islam, infinitely better than knowing nothing. Now we ask, what is “Islam as hijacked by the hijackers”?  When you say that this is what Islam is, and then affirm that this is the way it should be for everybody else in the whole wide world, and even decree that this is the way it is going to be for everybody else in the whole wide world (a declaration of mission), and when you dedicate yourself to terrorizing anyone who stands in the way of your mission, and you vow yourself to be true to your mission even if you have to die for it, and throughout it all, you are energized, sustained, motivated, goaded on by the promise that dying for  your mission makes you a glorious martyr for Allah and secures for you immediate entrance into Paradise where 72 virgins await you, young militant buck that you are  -- that’s Islam hijacked by the hijackers, hijacked by religious fanatics. 

 

At the end of the day, the declaration of jihad, of holy war, to rid the world of all “infidels” (that’s you and me), to rid the world of every civilization except Islamic civilization  -- that’s Islam hijacked by religious fanatics.  At the end of the day, the beast we’re trying to slay at this horrific moment is Islam hijacked by religious fanatics.  And that is a more profound perspective on the immense abyss that lies between the two of us; a more profound perspective on the rage so intense that it could be aimed at bringing   down the two towers upon 6000 people.

 

Vatican II and Mecca I

The incredibly extensive and thorough investigation of these past days uncovered a letter or document left behind by three of the September suicide terrorists. It contained step-by-step instructions             for their suicide mission. Some of it is practical: “Check your weapon.  Make sure your knife is sharp   so as not to cause unnecessary pain to those you kill.”   “If you take a taxi to the airport, when you arrive, smile and be assured that Allah is with the believer, and that the angels are taking care of you.” Some of the instruction for the suicide mission is downright religious, especially this one: “When the time of truth comes   and zero hour arrives, then straighten out your clothes, stick out your chest and welcome death for the sake of Allah.  Seconds before you hit the target your last words are to be,  `There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his messenger.’” Indeed, before the hijackers hijacked us, they hijacked their own religion.

We remind ourselves that all the great religions, whether Islamic, Judaic, or Christian, get hijacked by their fanatics.[1] There’s not only   Islamic triumphalism, but also Judaic and Christian triumphalism.  Triumphalism: that’s the strut, which crosses out everybody else but me. One of the chief glories of Vatican II is that it sowed the seeds of a new atmosphere that seeks to rid the Catholic Church and us Catholics of our triumphalism. And in this horrific moment of ours we venture to say that it is about time that Islam summons a Vatican II of its own, and let them call it “Mecca I.”

 

Conclusion

Tolerance

One of the great issues in this tragedy is about tolerance.  It’s about not crossing out others.  It’s about making room for others who don’t march to beat of our drum. It’s about not fearing others but rather appreciating them for their differences. From our side, Salat, Haji, Shahada, Ramadan, should all intrigue us. From their side, their differences shouldn’t be a finger in our eye. Intolerance is a horrific thing. Religious intolerance, i.e. the stuff ignited by religious zeal, is horrific beyond description, for there are no words for ground zero in Lower Manhattan.  And there are no words for all those grieving people whose tears will never dry up, no matter whether they live as long as God. There are no words for all those grieving people for whom the bell will now toll on forever.

 

 

Conclusion II

(On being right on)

I should stop here but    I have a footnote. As I was preparing this homily with its long dissertation on Islam, I had my   qualms. I said to myself: “What in the world am I doing talking about Islam in a sermon? Shouldn’t I be talking about Jesus and things religious? I put the preparation down. On the way to morning mass, I stop for a Time magazine, opened it up in the car for a moment, and to my amazement I immediately alighted upon this:  On the Sunday evening after September 11th, Rev. Gregory Keosaian, of Armenian descent, and pastor of Huguenot Memorial Church in Pelham, N.Y., goes out into the sanctuary to face a doubly filled congregation with fury written all over their faces. “I should have scrapped my prepared sermon,” he said. He didn’t. Instead he said   something very cerebral about man’s cry for justice and the justice that God dishes out.   That seemed simply to increase the pain of the congregation before him. Afterwards a   woman said to him: “Greg, we just wanted you to put your arms around us.” Then he’s quoted as saying, “My feeling was that if I could be the cause of so much pain, I had no place in the ministry.”  The article ends reporting, “Since then he has abandoned his thought of retiring.  Instead he has decided to focus on educating his congregation about Islam  (!) and about helping the families who have lost loved ones” (Time, October 1, 2001).


[1] In Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky writes: “For the sake of unified worship, people have slain each other with the sword. They have set up their gods and have challenged one another saying, “Put away your gods and come worship ours, or we shall kill you and your god.”