Abraham–the father of many nations, Christianity & Islam in a time of Terror
By Rev. Dr. Dilara Üsküp
During this sacred ritual of Jumah on Friday, March 15, 2019, in Christchurch, New Zealand, a shooter—armed with conspiracy theories, a camera attached to his head, and an AR-15—walked into a congregation in New Zealand and unleashed his fury as if playing a demented, live action version of a video game. As the trial begins, retraumatized, silent tears streamed from the faces of the victim’s families as the suspect appeared in Christchurch High Court in April.
In the aftermath of a mass shooting, even one on foreign soil, Americans have a tendency to debate the shooter’s motivations. This is unnecessary. The shooter told us what he believed in a semi-coherent manifesto entitled, “The Great Replacement.”
White genocide conspiracy theories and white supremacist rhetoric have become globalized. This rhetoric is rooted in the same logic that suggests Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants, and Blacks are trying to overtake “white European civilization.”
In my Politics of God class, my student-scholars often ask me about the “true roots” of Islamophobia. Each week, I pose the same questions for discussion, “Do you really think those ‘Christians,’ or people who espouse these theories, can parse the theological implications of God’s promise to Abraham? Do you think folks understand that Jesus is mentioned in the Quran? Do you think this is truly a question of religious knowledge?
The answer to the questions is “absolutely not!” It is the encapsulation of anxiety about change. As my mother poignantly reminds me, people are afraid of what they don’t understand. Instead of seeking clarity, it’s easier for them to seek confusion. Indifference becomes intolerance, which leads to minimization and the distortion of objective truth. These behaviors compel veiled or covert racism; then overt racism/discrimination; followed by calls for violence, acts of violence, and finally extinction. The extinction of culture, language, religion, tradition, people, and nation starts with rhetoric in our polity.
On the radical right, Ms. Jeanine Pirro’s critique of Rep. Ilhan Omar advances anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiments. Ms. Pirro opined of Rep. Omar, “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?” Newsflash to Ms. Pirro: the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament specifies laws in the Torah. The book of Leviticus—the Holiness Codes—includes punishments of death or expulsion for blasphemy, sexual sin, or occult practices. Surely Ms. Pirro would not make the reverse argument that the beliefs of a devout Christian or Jew, adhering to Biblical principles, are also antithetical to the Constitution. The Hebrew and Christian Bibles have very controversial scriptures, like the Quran, that require interpretation. Ms. Pirro’s comments are based in xenophobia, racism, hate, and religious intolerance for Muslims.
On the radical liberal left, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also employs the same logical fallacy in her recent Twitter message, “At 1st I thought of saying, ‘Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore.’ But I couldn’t say ‘imagine.’ Because of Charleston. Pittsburgh. Sutherland Springs. What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe?”
Thoughts and prayers for victims of terrorism are not mutually exclusive from concrete policy prescriptives, including the reduction of assault weapons, such as the case with Prime Minister Arden’s announcement banning military-style semi-automatic rifles. While I can offer a generous interpretation that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s comments were directed to the NRA and their coaptation of the phrase as a deflation for policies reducing the availability of assault weapons, the underlying sentiment she expresses is of dangerous religious intolerance as well.
The fact that sincere “thoughts and prayers” have become politicized is highly problematic. It is time for her and every other political elite to recognize that they are leaders and not Twitter-trolling entertainers. People have the right to freely exercise their faith, especially in moments as dark as this one. That means having respect for thoughts and prayers but simultaneously recognizing that while the Constitution gives us the right to bear arms, it does not necessarily give us the right to bear military-grade weapons.
Perhaps Rep. Ocasio-Cortez should direct her efforts as an elected official to reducing the supply of assault weapons and protecting the freedom to both believe and not believe. That dualistic understanding of particularity and universality only comes with a radical understanding of empathy and love. Across the US, despite a strong US economy, people on all sides are feeling isolated and squeezed.
Ms. Pirro and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s rhetoric may be animated by different ideological beliefs but both are simplistic, reductionist, and draw from the darkest and most repulsive human impulses. They deserve to be called out in the same breath.
Policy will not heal humanity unless policymakers suddenly become gods. What good are thoughts and prayers? At this moment, where Christians all over the world remember the life and sacrifice Jesus, it was thoughts and prayers that have historically given oppressed communities hope in times of hopelessness. The collection of effervescing global thoughts and prayers unite people across all nations, religions, and beliefs. Tribalism, shaming, and ideological warfare grounded in anger, intolerance, and disrespect damage our ability to be human. In the aftermath of the burials in Christchurch, my thoughts and prayers are especially extended to families and loved ones of the victims during this moment of trial.
Fifty people were killed. Their blood stained the interior of the mosque but also the interior of Christ’s church, synagogue, temple, and every other space of sincere worship. In a moment of tragedy, I’ll tell you the only thing that will enable human begins to endure the complexities of life are thoughts, prayers, and connection to something greater than ourselves—our faith.
The Rev. Dr. Dilara Üsküp is a native of Izmir, Turkey, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. She currently serves as a post-doctoral fellow at the UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services, where she studies politics, religion, and sexual behavior. Dr. Üsküp is a joint doctoral graduate of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Science and the Divinity School. As a political scientist, she hopes to expand the contours of the academic study of religion and its impact on our polity. As a health scholar, she is interested in sexual decision-making. As the “#youngtheologian,” she is drawn to ascetic spiritual practices. She created #/@TrapSpirituality which seeks to liberate the consciousness from orthodoxy. Dr. Üsküp is preparing two manuscripts, Sex in God’s Cityand #MindManifestingMetaphysics.
