It doesn't take much to look around and see that there is a need for understanding and love, instead of fear and hate.
Still reeling from the death of Trayvon Martin, the resulting protests and revelations, and stories that abound about people who die every day in this world unjustly, I was shocked to hear of the home invasion of a 32 year old Iraqi mother of five in California last week.
Shaima Alawadi was beaten within an inch of her life. She was left unconscious -- left to die in her living room. Apparently, her 17 year old daughter, Fatima Al Himidi found her with a note near her body saying "Go back to your country, you terrorist." And then, finally, she did die.
My heart weeps for that family.
This is a woman who has apparently lived in the United States for the past 20 years. And even if she had arrived more recently -- isn't this a nation of immigrants? In what universe of madness is it okay that she was bludgeoned to death in her own home?
So now we are left to ask ourselves -- how can we make sure that her death was not in vain?
The answer is: We must do better.
Martin Luther King, Jr. talked of the "fierce urgency of now." I believe that there is a fiercely urgent need for us to take the time to learn about people who look differently than we do, live differently than we might, worship differently than what is familiar to us. Because violence is often rooted in ignorance and fear. Ignorance about those who are different than us. How they live. How they worship. Fear of those people because somehow, the differences between us may make us less certain about our own place in the world.
Fear, as they say, is False Evidence Appearing Real.
Exposure is the kryptonite of ignorance.
Love and hate can't occupy the same space.
There must be more people in this world who value diversity rather than fear it. There must be less people in the world who think it is okay to allow their feelings of fear to turn into hateful acts of violence -- like taking a tire iron to the head of someone who needs to "go back to their country," because of their ethnicity, religion, or way of life.
We must do better. Now.
How you say?
In 2010, during My 52 Weeks of Worship, I made a commitment to visit a different place of worship every week -- whether that place of worship reflected my religious tradition or not. In one year, I visited 61 churches, mosques, synagogues, shuls, covens, temples and gathering places -- located across the US, Mexico, the UK, Nigeria, and South Africa.
With Anglicans and the Amish, Buddhists and Bahá'íans, Catholics and Christian Mystics, Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims and Mormons, Scientologists and Seventh Day Adventists, I worshipped, discovered the Divine, and the wild and wonderful ways that different people worship every week.
Many ask me: What did I learn from that journey?
I learned many things.
I learned about courage and humility, witnessed the pure power of silence and meditation, soaked in the kindness of strangers, contemplated the wisdom of approaching every interaction with good intentions and a pure heart, and gave thanks for the blessings of community, family, and faith.
I learned that deep down, most people understand on some level that each of us has the potential to be a villain or a victor, and so seek to fortify themselves through positive worship and uplift, so they can be the best versions of themselves they can be. I also learned some things about stepping out of your comfort zone and into the world of another. Almost every week, in sacred spaces around the world, I learned something about someone who lived and worshipped in a way that was different than myself.
Are you interested in doing the same?
Here are a few tips from My 52 Weeks of Worship that might help you take one step in the direction of interfaith dialogue, discussion and understanding.
Some people look at breaking bread with people from faith traditions other than their own as "worshipping false Gods" or some other similar form of betrayal or demonstration of doubt. I disagree. I feel strongly that we should challenge ourselves to get past this way of thinking and take small steps toward learning more about others that are unlike us... and that through this process, we can learn more about ourselves.
The journey is worth it.
The time is now, and it's a fiercely urgent priority.
We must do better.
Rev. Ruth Hawley-Lowry: MLK, Trayvon and Jesus
Carlo Strenger: From Slavery to Freedom: The Right to Choose what it Means to be Jewish
Sherman A. Jackson: Trayvon Martin: Between 'Whitening' and Bad Law
If law enforcement authorities were to fall victim to your tendency toward snap-judgments, then that could, potentially, decrease the likelihood that the killer will be found, especially if the killer's motives were much more personal than hate of a stranger.
The murder of this lady seems to be being labeled a hate crime before it has been investigated. Could it be possible that there was a more personal reason and the notes sent and left were intended to mislead the authorities?
Either way, this woman and her families deserve justice. Hopefully, justice will be served in both cases.
I believe that so many people are curious about different faiths and beliefs but because of the quote mentioned above are fearful and don't want to be seen as abandoning their beliefs so they use hate to mask their curiosity. I love and appreciate this article!
Hatred gives the person/people doing the hating feelings of belonging, accompanied by a self-proclaimed status of superiority which, unlike real status, is not based.on actual achievement. People who hate others see themselves as being superior to the people they hate simply by reason of their being whom they are.
I don't believe for one moment that the person who murdered Shaima Alawadi was under any illusion that this mother and long-standing resident of the US was actually involved in terrorism. I am convinced that we will find that this murderer will turn out to be a poorly-educated individual, an underachiever with a poor employment history, disliked in his community, an opportunist who seized on the hatred for Muslims that is now currently in vogue and acceptable in the mainstream media, openly rationalized by 'nice'people at dinner parties. We will find that this individual used this hatred to justify this act of violence.
Several generations ago, he would have seized on the overt racism then openly prevalent in nice society and used it as a justification to go off to lynch a 'Negro', or to beat a Chinese to death. Perhaps he would have torched a Jewish shop.
Hatred of those perceived as somehow inferior is as American as apple pie, woven as it has been into the fabric of American society since colonial times.
Sadly, there is nothing new in any of this.
I think you describe well one form of hate which arises in individuals exposed to hate engendering ideas from others and the media.
However, there is also hate which fills communities and is engendered by shared beliefs. This communal hate is difficult to describe.
Psychology has advanced so that we have a vocabulary to describe individuals. But sociology and anthropology have not helped our ways of thinking. We just do not know how to describe communal hatred. And it is everywhere, often concealed.
We are all social beings. Too much emphasis upon the psychology of the individual can lead to underestimating the social context and the widespread nature of the problem attributed to the ''sick individual.''
www.noi.org Saviours' Day 2012 if you are not scared to think or visit another faith.
Here a Website for you to read and consider. http://moses.creighton.edu/csrs/About.html
Shame on whomever is responsible for allowing that to happen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise
Nice sentiment, but Scientologists? Many people regard Scientology as a money grubbing cult (it's also the only 'religion' listed whose name is a licensed trademark (that's right folks, it's officially "Scientology TM"). I would've liked to see her meet with some non-believers as well. Not everyone believes in god you know.
The author is obviously a very nice person and I appreciate her positive attitude and openness to different belief systems, but I I don't think you can combat something as horrible as the murder of this Iraqi woman with shallow bromides like "Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real".
Also, as horrible as the case of the murdered Iraqi woman is (why hasn't this been covered more in the media?), I don't think it's fair to suggest that this is typical of the immigrant experience in America (i.e. being murdered in your home by a psycho). Even the most rabid anti-immigrant and/ or islamophobic types do not typically kill people.
But as some have pointed out, there are open questions about who committed this crime. The note may have been a ruse to mask the identity of the killer, who according to some reports, may in fact have been a relative.