Love Thine Enemy

Long before September 11, 2001, politicians knew the best way to gain support was to name a fearsome enemy that couldn’t be seen, and proclaim the threat was imminent.  Using evidence or fiction, they argue this enemy has diametrically opposite values and will end life as we know it.  They tell us that the enemy is snaking into our trusted institutions, seeping into our culture, lurking behind every change that we are uncomfortable with.  The circle of paranoia is complete by claiming that anyone who disagrees is unpatriotic, therefore silencing dissent.

This method has worked repeatedly in history, from Hitler’s Germany to McCarthy’s Communism to the current ‘threat’ of Islamic Caliphate.  Unfortunately, it still works.  “In September 2010, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 49 percent of Americans held an unfavorable view of Islam, a significant increase from 39 percent in October of 2002” according to the Center for American Progress.

As Christians, we have instructions of how to act towards a perceived enemy. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."  (Matt 5:43-44).  At no point did Christ instruct his listeners to take any action against another – he taught the opposite: humility and compassion towards the ‘other’.  As followers of Christ, we have a model of how to respond to an enemy threat, as Jesus demonstrated in every day of his ministry.  So why is it so many self-confessed Christians have the most venom towards the “Islamic threat”?

Under this type of manufactured hysteria, every individual or minute act that defies this logic is an individual act of heroism.  In that spirit, I applaud the DuPage County Board for not responding to Anti-Muslim hysteria and permitting the construction of a Mosque in unincorporated Willowbrook – that is, after they denied it.  Happily, fairer heads have prevailed over the Ground Zero Mosque Mania that colored so much of 2010. 

I would applaud louder, however, if a DuPage County rules change last October was applied evenly to all faiths.  The original MECCA Mosque application included a 56-foot Dome and 79-foot Minaret in the structure.  These aspects of the project were denied, and have continued to be denied, even though a policy change was recently enacting regarding height of “religious design elements including bell towers, steeples and crosses to exceed 36 feet — to a maximum height of 72 feet — as long as certain setback requirements are met” – would allow the Mosque to aspire to Godly heights.  Holding the envisioned MECCA Mosque to the ‘precedent’ of previous denial looks conspicuously as if the policy change was designed with two different standards in mind. 

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “the best way to destroy your enemy is by making him your friend”.   This is one of the basic truths of life, and luckily, despite all the setbacks, one that the MECCA Mosque planners understand.

“Though such conflicts have led to concerns of religious discrimination, supporters of the MECCA site were not pointing fingers Tuesday.

"I can't read people's minds, but I have heard from neighbors that this was not about religion, and I believe them," said Touleimat, who lives in Burr Ridge. "The work for us has just begun. Now our job is to show them how good of a neighbor we can be."

The Mosque planners have modeled our own Christian teaching on how to treat an ‘enemy’.