THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.
The hellish actions of a lone man of hate has made his name, Norway and Islam come to mean a new dimension of hate to all peoples of the earth. Oslo will never be the same, camping will always have connotations that evil can protrude into even the most peaceful and idyllic atmosphere and the angelic face of Anders Breivik will be synonymous with the most diabolical behaviour since the SS gas camp maniacs of WW 2.
His actions seem to have been fed by a body of information that was divorced from logic, reality, reason and compassion. It was nationalistic to the most extreme, selfish and in opposition to the very religious doctrines that he claimed he held to, that of the suffering Christ.
Sadly his ideas are only a stone’s throw away from an underlying tension that many countries, especially in Europe and the developed world are facing. That of sharing their wealth, resources and institutions with the poor, the oppressed and the weak of this world. Immigration and the fear of being swamped to the point that the present culture and lifestyle of his own nation would not exist in ten, twenty or fifty years time drove him to punish those that had links with the leaders of that open handed policy. So who is at fault for feeding this ogre?
First of all we must realise that this attitude is not new. In times of plenty migration is seen to be a good thing because goods and services can be cheaper for the ruling classes because immigrants work longer, for less and make do with the scraps that the culture will throw to them. The Egyptians tried to eliminate the Jews, fearing that they would take over the land. Britain has been swamped from time to time by Saxons, Celts, Irish, French, Polish, Russians, Arabs, Persians, Members of the British empire from the 1950’s onwards and Asians from Uganda but the overall experience has been that they have settled down, added to the culture and made a life that is richer for all.
Secondly we must realise that immigration is two way and whilst people do come to our own land, we also move out to other places like Canada, Australia, Europe like waves of the sea bring change and producing richer experiences for all.
So who is at fault for this culture of fear and selfishness?
First Muslim activists themselves. A minority make public claims that they will take over the land, and set about creating alternative communities like a Muslim Parliament, areas of some cities are no go areas for the police, they sometimes demonstrate on the streets against some of the freedoms that we pride ourselves on like the incident with Salmon Rushdie’s book burning. Our own anarchists and Animal Rights activists act in the same way.
They seek to have a twofold legal system that will be the introduction of the Sharia law for their people without realising it is that very law that their people have fled away from and come to Europe in the first incidence. The vast majority of immigrants want to settle, work, live at peace and privately worship in the only way they have known. In time their children and grandchildren act as go betweens and find a path to integrate and accommodate the new cultures they face. This is in fact producing a reformation in Islam and other faiths as questions are raised and new interpretations of their ancient books are undertaken. There is a Mutazilites renaissance taking place.(see my article of this subject)
Secondly there are those who feed such fears based upon a lack of understanding of processes that take place in Europe of helping with integration along with ideas and changes that take place in this community. Yes the first generation might well feel isolated and outside of the structures of governance and wealth creation but it is always harder to start all over again in another culture when you do not have the links, networks and institutions that assist in this process. The children of these people began to create these links and become participatory. Added to this converts join the Islamic fold, marriages take place and they also water down that extremist faith by bringing their own world views and values based upon their nationality into the newcomers faith. The church in this land has its own problems with people who read into every incident a malicious interpretation and see “reds under every bed” as it were. In fact the very experience of the USA was that they claimed that “the commies are coming” and broke out into a mindless disgorging of hatred and mis-interpretation of the ultimate events in the post war years.
The problem is that these Christians who hate Islam have not stopped long enough to ask why has God allowed the rise of Islam, what does he want us to learn from them and would He not evaporate them if his was accomplished.? These Christians who are xenophobic, insecure and paranoid need to return to their faith in God and allow Him to bring about His perfect will without enveloping themselves is a show of concern and hatred. Most of these people who rant and rail against Islam are often members of a church. Their fear is that the institution that they belong to will crumble as it has to interact in a multi cultural environment. Traditionally they have been used to teaching their congregation from a safe platform without being questioned about some of their bizarre and denominational positions. In a multi-cultural atmosphere people will not go along with these power plays and will raise penetrating questions. One famous tele-evangelist in USA claims that all Arabs are terrorists! He does not even know that 10% of Egypt and 30% in Lebanon are Christians. Some of the Palestinian terrorists are in fact Christians. They seem to miss out on any contact with Michelle Hussain the lead BBC reporter, or Rageh Omah a documentary producer or others who are stand up comedians like Omid Djilili, Maz Jobrani or Tissa Hami. There is a multitude of auditors, doctors, lawyers, engineers and administrators within British society that are Muslims culturally but have accommodated themselves to the prevailing British way. The sheer ignorance and insecurity of the “the Muslims will overwhelm us” brigade is a deep embarrassment especially when the command not to bare false witness against our neighbour is fundamental to our faith.
What can be done?
1. Let us see Breivik as a symptom of our own insecurities and a warning that we need to be confident in our past, learn from mistakes made and be willing to make friends, listen to our visitors, help to be at rest in this culture and learn what we can from them as well.
2. So far the church has failed to develop a theology of Islam and other faiths. We need to be humble enough to accept that if we cannot see our own weaknesses God will draw people to us that will expose those weaknesses. That because we did not take the news of the Kingdom of God out to them He has arranged to bring them to us.We need to learn how to share our faith pragmatically and intellectually.
3. Each country has its “prophets of doom” and conspiracy merchants, for this minority to dominate the landscape is foolish. One I know in the UK claims that almost all British institutions are in Muslim hands, including the Police, Parliament, Major companies and schools. Often their own experience of racism and oppression in their homelands influences their interpretation and agenda. They should be challenged and rebuked.
