Then and Now

I was in the Middle East attending a conference for community development practitioners on 9/11/01. I distinctly remember the sincerity I felt from the many Arabs whom came up to me to express their grief and embarrassment at what had happened in the days that followed the attacks. I also felt that more then anything they wanted me to understand that the attacks were not in any way representative of the Islamic faith, and that they strongly disagreed with what had happened.

I remember sending an email out on 9/13 to many friends and family members in the United States talking about how I was feeling challenged to live out the commandment to love my enemies, and how I felt that we as a nation should not respond to the evil violence we had experienced with more violence.

I remember receiving many emails back telling me that I had taken the verse out of context, and that in the current period of time in which we were (and still are) living God was (and still is) administering His rule through man, and that the US's response to the attacks were (and continue to be) justified.

And here we are 5 years later. Did a violent response to violence produce a less violent and more peaceful world?

If it has, I can't see it from where I'm sitting and living...

I'm typing this while sitting in an extremely hot apartment in the Middle East. I very different Middle East then before 9/11/01. A much more angry Middle East. A much more volatile Middle East. A Middle East that 5 years ago was sharing in the pain and grief I was feeling for Americans who had lost their lives in the attacks, but now feels that they have been wrongfully punished for the sins of a few men who share their ethnicity, but stole their religion.

I sometimes feel like my religion has been stolen from me as well and is being sent to the nations all wrapped up in metal shells...

May peace come back to earth.

M.P.