Friendship, not fear

This week, in the middle of a calendar encapsulating patriotic 9/11 remembrances, the holiest of Muslim holidays, football players refusing to stand for the National Anthem and a presidential campaign full of racist epithets, our county’s Board of Supervisors passed an official resolution declaring Sonoma County as an “Islamophobia-free community.”
So, maybe as much as we want to keep our religions and politics apart, we have to admit our church and state are part of a single conversation. And, maybe that’s OK.
The Board of Supervisors resolution this week honored a countywide petition signed by over 700 people written by the Interfaith Council of Sonoma County titled, “Friendship Not Fear.”
The words included in the resolution sought to foster “a better understanding of our Muslim neighbors” and to oppose “any expression of bigotry towards Muslims.”
Not every community in America is ready or willing to adopt such a anti-Islamophobia resolution. There are places where the memories stirred by 9/11 ceremonies are burdened with hate for “extremists” and “terrorists.” We even have a presidential candidate who wants to ban all or most Muslims from our shores.
Most of last weekend’s 9/11 gatherings were patriotic and militaristic affairs. Prayers were saved for the victims and first responders. The more ecumenical and interfaith messages were not as prevalent.
Just like our calendar that can include a 9/11 Patriots Day and the Muslim’s Eid-al-Adha spiritual gatherings in the same weekend, so must we embrace the tolerance and cultural understanding that is the mission of the Interfaith Council.
Look at the instant divide created when 49ers football quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to participate in the Star Spangled Banner. He was told to “love it or leave it” and was blasted for practicing his rights of protest and free speech. It’s as if we can’t pray alongside our Muslim neighbors because 15 radical terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon 15 years ago.
It is not so much that we need to be more tolerant. What we really need is to be more educated about what is, and isn’t Islam. We have been waging America’s longest war in history in the homelands and mecca of the Islam and Muslim cultures. We are a major part of the upheaval, deaths and spread of millions of refugees. We’ve spent trillions in weaponry and very little for humanitarian aid.
We are told the invasion of Iraq, the 13-year war in Afghanistan, the embargo of Iran and the airstrikes over Syria are not anti-Islam but are anti-terrorist. Maybe we believe that, but what do the Middle East’s Sunni, Shia and Kurds believe?
One thing they believe is that all Muslims must make a five-day pilgrimage to the holy site of Mecca (in the Saudi Arabian desert) in their lifetime. Known as the Haij, it is where 1.3 million Muslims from 164 countries last weekend gathered in prayer, charitable giving, and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The amazing throng of humanity included an estimated 15,000 American-Muslims.
Saudi’s Sunnis and Iran’s Shia, the sources of geopolitical strife at other times, prayed and read from the same Quran. They shared vows to put aside linguistic, cultural, class and political differences. More than a million of them shared the same holy quadrant in peace and with their deepest Islamic faiths.
Meanwhile, Americans shared pledges to “never forget” the 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks during Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance gatherings last Sunday, Sept. 11. We wish more of the services could have included words from the “Friendship Not Fear” petition of the Interfaith Council of Sonoma County because 9/11 still evokes more fear than education or new understanding.
After all, fear is the weapon of terrorists, not religious pilgrims or true patriots — even the ones that play football.
— Rollie Atkinson