The recent explosion in anger against the continued over-reactions of policemen towards the people they are supposed to protect is giving a lot of people pause for thought. Are the police more brutal now than before? Are the police departments of this nation filled with racists? Is there more crime than ever before?
I don't have the answers to those questions, but I know that as a white man, I was once threatened by a white cop with being shot. My offense? Speeding on a state highway. He pulled me and my friends over and literally ran up to my car window, reached in, pulled the keys out of my ignition and said, "If you move, I'll shoot you!"
Needless to say, we were scared. We were all high school students returning home late at night from a day at an amusement park. At first the cop wanted us to pay a speeding ticket for something like $200, payable to him in cash. When we protested we didn't have that much, he asked us how much we had. When we pooled together $50, he wrote a ticket for $50 worth of penalties.
That was my initiation into the world of the police. I learned to be wary around 'police types' later in life, when I encountered an off-duty cop at my martial arts school. He began taking lessons about a year after I had joined this particular school. From the get-go he was rude, aggressive and overly eager to 'throw' the newer students around. Even though I had more technical skill than he did, I also avoided partnering up with him for the drills because he seemed to love to strong arm people into the wall! He was a latino cop, and in a short time he came to be a menace on the training room floor.
Later on, about four years ago I was stopped by a pair of black cops for no justifiable reason and given a traffic ticket. I protested (politely, of course) that I didn't do anything wrong, but they literally just laughed at me and said I could plead not guilty and take it up with a judge if I wanted to. I was incensed, but knew I was without options.
My latest incident was with a white cop again. I was coming off the highway onto an offramp, and slowing down, but he decided to pull me over for speeding anyway. Despite my courteous behavior, he gave me a speeding ticket - and inflate the miles per hour over! He was being a real jerk for no reason. He even smirked when he handed the ticket over to me.
So my experience with police forces of any race has largely been negative. What am I saying? Police officers can be aggressive, and are probably under a lot of stress. Are all cops that way? No. I have an uncle who is a cop and he's very peaceful and reasonable, although he works in a lazy suburb. In urban areas it might be different. I can only imagine what it must be like for people living in areas where crime is rampant. The police are probably more aggressive and on edge. I don't know what can be done about it. The filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted the other day that he wants all police disarmed until new cops can be hired. I don't know if that would work, but it speaks to the depths of the frustration.
All this recent protesting and rioting and racial finger-pointing just got me to thinking more about Islam's answer to the problem of racial mistrust. The Qur'an's answer is simple: "Indeed, We created you into nations and tribes so you can get to know one another." Then the Qur'an tells us that the best amongst us is the one who has the most taqwa, or awareness of Allah in our hearts.
The people running around in anger, whether police, innocent bystanders, criminals, community members, observers - they are all acting without spiritual guidance and without an anchor in the teachings of the Lord of the Heavens. The Qur'an asks the unbelievers, "Will you take (this message) as a joke?"
In a world going crazy, spiritual solutions seem to be the only thing not tried by anyone. Sadly, it's the only solution that can work. All other things have failed. I think we as Muslims, despite the tremendously bad public relations nightmare we are saddled with out of the Middle East, need to go on a spiritual offensive. We need to get out in the public space and promote our message of healing, racial reconciliation, guidance and clean leaving.
It's so easy to go into a cocoon. Every time some extremist organization does something bad, we wince in pain and try to hide that much more. The only thing that will bring is continued shame and the loss of our children to the faith. When Christian Protestants and Catholics were killing each other in Northern Ireland for religious differences, their coreligionists in other lands didn't feel ashamed or personally guilty. When Catholic Croats and Serbian Orthodox Christians were bloodletting, those religions didn't cocoon.
Yes, we have a tremendous problem because the media here has an anti-Muslim agenda and they are doing it well, but that is the time to become more creative. For example, some anti-Muslim groups in NYC have been putting misquotes or out-of-context quotes from the Qur'an on subway advertisements to make us all look like homicidal maniacs. What about a Muslim group putting up an ad that has some Old Testament quote about killing babies or shaming women with the tagline: "Don't like it? Is it out-of-context? This is what they are doing with quotes from the Qur'an too!"
Or what about Muslim marches for peace or hospitals named, "The Islamic Medical Center" because don't we have a gazillion "Jewish," "Catholic," and other religiously named institutions that tell people "this" religion has a component of mercy and healing? There are so many ways to act. We just need to be more creative so people see we are not all the same and that our religion is nothing like what is happening in the Middle East - an aberration that exists because the Western world has been BOMBING that part of the world and supporting evil dictators and corruption there for four generations! Of course, the people are gonna' get crazy over there.
The Founding Fathers of this nation got hot and bothered over issues much less than that, and they started a revolution that lasted for almost a decade! We need to let people know that what the shrill alarmists are saying is not the religion we follow, and at the same time we need to get our own house in order over here where we have some influence. So many of the problems in the Muslim community in the West are a result of a lack of education and sincerity.
The tasks look larger than life, but no one individual has to do them all. Some Muslims are already working for this or that niche. If you cannot join them, at least support them financially. Spread the word! If there is a good youth program over there, tell people. If there is a homeless shelter run by Muslims, donate. If there is a budding scholar who inspires, support him or her. In short, we can repair this damage our reputation has suffered.
This country needs the kind of healing we can provide. Cops and the community will always have tension, but if we can provide a workable framework for at least helping people to eliminate race as a flashpoint, then we will have contributed greatly. May Allah help us focus on the good, emerge from our shells and do something to show our Lord we are not afraid of the words and insults of others. May He bless us in our efforts and give us strength in the darkest of times. Ameen!
No comments:
Post a Comment