Another sad day, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. It’s Monday. Coffee at last.
A matter of faith.
I watched Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s funeral this morning. As Rachel said, he’s finally free. We are not. Not as long as there are still hostages alive in Gaza. Not for us who have our hearts broken. When will we ever be free? For me, I don’t think I will feel free even when the last of them goes home.
Being free means above all living without fear. It means living in a world where happiness exists like the air we breathe, not something we feel in spite of it. When the air is poisoned with hate it’s hard to breathe, and hard to be happy.
I often go back to the West Wing and yesterday 9/11 came to my mind. The episode made as a response to that fateful day was “Isaac and Ishmael”. The sons of Abraham.
An exchange between a high school student and a White House official stayed with me. She was wondering how to live in a world of hate. How to keep going when you can be blown to pieces at any moment. A reality that sank in ALL American hearts after 9/11 for the first time.
“What do you call a society that has to just live every day with the idea that the pizza place you're eating in can just blow up without any warning?” - she asked. The response came immediately: “Israel.”
After 9/11 there was an effort to not target all Muslims for the extremist actions of a few. That particular episode of West Wing was part of that effort. Yet it tried, mirroring real life, to explain the dangers of said extremism, explicitly comparing Extremist Islam to the KKK, as movements within the Muslim and Christian faiths. That was a mistake. In retrospect, it was that notion that allowed for tolerance of the real extremists: fundamentalist Islamists and Christian nationalists.
The KKK is a minuscule part of the extreme right, mostly banned from openly manifesting itself. You don’t see huge KKK rallies identified as such. They merged into the neo-Nazi international movement and fascist ideology. The Islamic terrorists are extreme by definition. The difference between a peace loving Muslim and one that intends to provoke terror is in the word “terrorist”. When you refer to Islamic terrorism you are not stamping all Muslims as terrorists.
When you refer to Christian nationalism you’re not claiming all Christians are nationalists. And let’s be clear that religion based “nationalism” is just code for fascism, be it Christian or Muslim. And that’s what was missed after 9/11. The chance to make that distinction. The result was a warm blanket of tolerance towards fundamentalist Islam that persists to this day: the notion that their religion based nationalism is just “a cultural fact” we need to respect.
Democrats have fought having to admit that the fundamentals of Islam as applied to a society as well as to individuals from the dogmatic approach to the teachings of the Quran are not just as wrong as the same applied to the Bible, they are a reality in most of the Muslim World, especially among the Muslim Arabs. Take a look at what is happening right now in our streets and in our political discourse during the presidential campaign.
As a democratic campaign we are fighting against Project 2025 and its goal to turn this country into a “Christian Nation”. We find the promiscuity between Christian religion and state to be abhorrent. We know only one thing comes from it: fascism. And yet, many of the same people who are against this are demonstrating in the streets in favor of exactly that. It seems like if you trade Christian for Islamic that’s perfectly acceptable. Free Palestine, right? Go Iran.
Free Palestine should be to free them from the same threat that threatens us: religious fundamentalism. But that’s not what they are saying. Free Palestine is just code for destroying Israel. They don’t give a shit about Palestine. All these women “Palestinian influencers” living in NYC and the like who choose to wear religious clothes or Western fashion are hypocrites. None of them is rushing to buy a ticket to Palestine. They’re just fine where they are.
Just like after 9/11, after 10/7 the Democratic Party has the chance to get it right. Yes, denounce terrorism but above all make it clear that we do not tolerate religious fundamentalism of any kind. And, hello!, this goes for everyone, not just one religion. Sweden has already decided not to accept Muslim immigrants who practice religious fundamentalism. Good for them. If we are to live in a FREE society, a PLURALIST society, we cannot tolerate religious fundamentalism of any kind.
This goes for those who are already citizens and believe their faith allows them to exploit and hurt women and children because their faith “commands it”. Yes, Christians too. ALL religious freaks. Not just Muslims. But while some small religious groups keep the abuse within their tiny circles, and Project 2025 seeks to implement Gilead through elections, the rising Islamic fundamentalism has sharper claws that reach beyond their inner circles.
In a world where fundamentalism of all kinds is on the rise we must be aware that the right wing fascist drive is feeding on democracy's tolerance of ONE breed of fundamentalists: the Islamic. As long as we keep pretending stoning women to death is “just a cultural thing” we need to respect and don’t speak against it, as long as we make believe our Arab “allies” are “just normal” and that our fundamentalist Muslim neighbors are “just ordinary people” we are screwed.
If you are outraged by your Christian neighbor repulsive treatment of his wife you should not pretend your Muslim neighbor who does the same has “cultural excuses” and feel like if you speak up you’re Islamophobic. You’re not “Christian-phobic” when you stand up for the rights of Christian women. Islamophobia has, since 9/11, become a shield for Islamic fundamentalists. The only way to remove that shield is to expose it for what it is.
If we are to counter threats like the one posed by antisemitism we can’t just speak about what Christian nationalism really is; we have to expose Islamic fundamentalism as well. And in doing so make sure we are as harsh against one as we are against the other. They are the same. The only thing is one doesn’t come wrapped in explosive vests. Yet. And that makes all the difference, doesn’t it? The fact one religion taken to its extreme is nothing short of a death cult.
The Islamic world is made of billions of people who are still trying to leave obscurantism behind. We saw it in the Arab Spring. We see it in Iran. It is also made of millions who cling to it still and live in a perpetual state of hatred. They will need to figure it out just like we did in the Western world. We can help them. That help means embracing those who seek refuge among us from just that sort of fundamentalism but it means something else we can’t forget.
It means denying safe harbor to those who adhere to religious fundamentalism. Just like Sweden. These last days were a reminder of what that looks like; to live with that reality. What that hate really looks like and what it can do. We cannot allow it. We mourn the six lives cut short by that hate. May the memory of their lives be a blessing and help us understand what we are really fighting for. Right here as in Israel. Religious fundamentalism. God help us if we don’t.
Shalom.
