“This cannot be who we are
as Americans.”
That was my first reaction
to the massacre in the “Tree of Life” synagogue in Pittsburgh where eleven
Jewish worshipers, ages from 54 to 97 and engrossed in the remembrance of God,
were killed on October 27, by hate and bullets. It was the worst instance of
anti-Semitic violence in America’s 242-year-old history.
My next thought was, “This must
NOT be who we are.”
But what could I, an American-Muslim, do to support my
Jewish fellow-Americans? As the director of outreach of Evergreen Islamic
Center in San Jose, I quickly put out a press release:
“We members of the Evergreen
Islamic Center (EIC) of San Jose are devastated by the terrorism unleashed at
the “Tree of Life” synagogue in Pittsburgh by a gunman that left eleven people
dead and several wounded. We express our support for and solidarity with the Jewish
community in Pittsburgh and throughout America following this deadly attack.
There is a horrifying outbreak
of hate and bigotry across America today. Our schools, public venues and places
of worship are under assault by the intolerant and the violent. Yet we must not
give up hope. We must continue to build alliances with the majority of
Americans to stop the violence and the intolerance that are ripping our country
apart. We pledge to work unceasingly with our fellow-Americans in ensuring that
people of all persuasions and color are safe from the lone-wolf terrorist or
organized groups involved in terrorism. We also urge all registered voters to
vote their conscience in the midterm elections on November 6, only a few days
away.”
On Sunday morning, several of
us from EIC attended a service at the Shir Hadash synagogue in Los Gatos, CA,
and listened to a moving talk by Rabbi Reuven Firestone on “Pursuing Justice in
Polarized Times.” He spoke of a God who was both a God of Justice and a God of
Mercy. Among the believers of monotheistic faiths are some who only believe in
a God of justice, he said. They suffer from religious chauvinism and often
become extreme. There are others who only believe in a God of mercy. They are
at the other end of the spectrum. The Rabbi exhorted us to become moderates,
balancing justice and mercy, because “God is both.” “We cannot continue to see
the world only in our own way. We must also see the way of the others,” he
said. “I am right and you are wrong” only leads to violence. “Fear,” he
cautioned, “causes you to hate. So, the question is: how do we get rid of
fear?” The Rabbi challenged us to come up with solutions to this existential
threat.
I
made the point at the end of the Rabbi’s talk that we cannot come together only
in the wake of a tragedy. “We should regularly get
together over our daily life; music, poetry, food, and exchange ideas so we get
to see all of us in the full light of our humanity.”
From the synagogue, my wife and
I went to the Jewish Film Festival at the AMC Saratoga 14 Theater (running
through November 11) in San Jose to show our solidarity with the grieving
Jewish community. We acted as volunteer security guards, a small gesture no
doubt, but one deeply appreciated by Mark Levine, board president of the
Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival, and other members. Mark read to the
gathering inside the theater what I had written to him in an email: “An attack
on a synagogue is an attack on all of us, and on the foundational values of
America.”
 |
Mark Levine,
board president of the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival, and Hasan Zillur
Rahim, director of outreach at Evergreen Islamic Center, pose together for a
photo outside the AMC Saratoga 14 movie theater in San Jose on Sunday, Oct. 28,
2018. Rahim was one of several members of faith groups that reached out to show
solidarity with Jews in the wake of Saturday’s shooting attack on a synagogue
in Pittsburgh. (Joseph Geha/Bay Area News Group)
What contributed to this
horrific outbreak of violence, first the pipe bombs, then the synagogue
slayings? There is no denying that the toxic messages of hate and bigotry
coming from the highest office in the land have emboldened extremists to act on
their darkest instincts.
Any statistician will tell you
that causality is almost impossible to prove, but in this case, the correlation
between what president Trump says and what his sycophants do is very strong. He
uses fear to galvanize his base. He has aggressively promoted the idea that
xenophobia is a better substitute for patriotism and violence and cruelty are
preferable to negotiation and kindness. The unwashed barbarians apparently carrying
deadly diseases and hiding terrorists among them are about to invade us, he
said of the caravan of immigrants from Central America making their slow and
painful journey toward the US border. He has dispatched over 5,000 soldiers to
stop the “invasion.” He has also threatened to do away with the 14th
Amendment by denying citizenship rights to babies born in the United States.
When a definitive history is
written a decade or two from now on the Trump presidency, he will be harshly
judged. He has polarized the country, damaged its institutions and made hate
mainstream among Republicans. His incompetence, malevolence, vulgarity,
narcissism and mendacity are certain to mark him as the worst US president ever.
But the verdict of history is
years away and by then permanent damage to the United States will probably have
been done. The critical question is: What can we do NOW to reverse this descent
into darkness?
There is only answer: Vote in
the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 6, and vote for democrats. There is
no other way to stop America from turning into a country of intolerance and
inhumanity, a country where the pain of the poor translates into privilege for
the rich.
