Looking for a few good Muslims…
By R.J. Godlewski
©
“The Lord replied, ‘If I find fifty
innocent people
in the city of
place for their
sake.’ “
(Gn 18:26)
We all know how the Genesis story
ended; persistent Abraham worked the Lord’s patience down to ten innocent
people before God finally nuked the damn place off of the planet and into the
annals of Biblical history. Well, maybe He didn’t nuke the place, but He sure as hell carpet bombed Sodom and
Gomorrah into non-existence leaving countless generations wondering what exactly was so evil about the two
cities that couldn’t even account for ten
decent souls. Flash ahead a few thousand years and I, myself, wonder about the
prospects of finding innocent people living within the
Yes, I know. There are at least ten decent, law-abiding,
faithful citizens living in the region. I just wonder about their leaders –
particularly those among the ranks of the ulema
(religious scholars). The region is
disintegrating into complete mayhem and yet I don’t see many – if any – people calling for peace,
compassion, or tolerance. What I do
see, however, is blame. Blame against
It doesn’t take a genius, however,
to notice that ancient Islam – the Caliphate-based civilization that the
Islamic radicals seem bent on remanufacturing – is a failed civilization. True, the modern Muslim world is about twice
the size of the Baghdad Caliphate of ~ 750 A.D., but it’s overall impact on
civilization is virtually non-existent. What was once the proud bastion of
mathematics, science, engineering, and art is now a hotbed of violence between
the oil ‘haves’ and the renegade ‘have nots’. While the West leapt into the
future through exploration, democracy, and free trade, the Muslim world
declined through inter-tribal rivalries potholed with colonialism. While the
New World came to represent ‘progress’ and ‘achievement’, the nations of the
Middle East took a cue from fourteenth century China and sunk deeply into the
quicksand of introversion. Today both
regions are trying desperately to play catch up and therefore save face on the
global stage.
I will not, however, try to lay
blame for any of these problems. This is an article about personal observation
not international relations or even history. For years I’ve seen the
Palestinians milk their plight for a homeland of their own only to see Hamas
and Fatah shatter any chances of a two-state solution through peaceful
co-existence with Israel. What makes this scenario so unusual is that the
Palestinians waged war against themselves instead of their ‘poster child’
enemy,
As I sit here in
Perhaps my problem rests with the
global media – they’re definitely an
untrustworthy bunch, they are – but all that I see flowing out of the
To show my own interest in the
region, I have been teaching myself Saudi Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Iraqi
Arabic, Lebanese Arabic, and Syrian Arabic. And to think I nearly failed French
in high school and struggled through Russian in college! Naturally, I don’t
attempt to learn languages and dialects because I expect to become fluent in
any of them. In fact, I’ll undoubtedly embarrass myself – to your comic relief,
perhaps – whenever I’d utter a single syllable of Arabic. It is not my intent
to flatter you with my proficiency, but you may feel comfortable just knowing
about my effort. I do have a sincere
interest in learning about the nations that comprise the
Still, in spite of my personal
efforts, all that I see is violence, bloodshed, ethnic hatred, and destruction
intended for my own nation and fellow countrymen. Sadly, it seems now that the
more that I see of the region the less that I am motivated to learn about it. Why
would anyone want to learn the
language of a country when the only words that seem to exist are harmful to my
own culture and heritage? Why would anyone want to visit a country when there
exist thousands of people who want to kill me just for who I am? Why would I want to lend aid or assistance to anyone who
might have their own lives placed into jeopardy just because I have aided or supported them?
Like Abraham, my desire is still
there to aid the people of the
Therefore, I would like to take this
opportunity to invite any resident
from any Muslim nation to email me
and strike up correspondence. I don’t really care if you badmouth me or my
country so long as you do it from the heart and not from politically-motivated
opportunism. That is, if we can share true
debate, we might be able to share understanding as well. Give me ten innocent
people and I’ll do what I can to save the