Honzo May 22nd, 2005

This is a response to an earlier post…

I am divided. On the one hand, I want to completely disassociate
ourselves with the region of the world and give my good riddance.

On the other hand, there is so much room for opportunity.
Opportunity for teaching, loving, growth, chance to heal great
injustices, such as the treatment of women in the majority of the
societies in the Middle East and Islamic societies.

The human ideas of freedom, responsibility, justice,
peace, understanding, can be taught to anyone. Any people, when given
the chance to develop their own view of the world can reach great
heights as a society.

Through my line of work, I have come into contact with many of the
people in my community from that region of the world (primarily people
from Jordan and Iraq). I must say that I have been very impressed. They
are intelligent, funny, good natured, hard working, loving to their
families, honest, ect…

No one can say that the people are innately bad. It is the people
and institutions in the cultures that breed fundamentalism, fanaticism,
extremism, hatred, ect…. It is that that must be rooted out. I firmly
believe that the societies need to take the responsibility for the
changing of their cultures. Therein lays the dilemma. If those that
breed all the bad things are in power, hold power by force and the
indoctrination of the masses of hatred, then how can the society
change? Certainly not thru the method Gandhi used; the protesters would
be destroyed, and their attackers would not feel remorse like the
British did. It is very messy overthrowing the existing government and
trying to help the people set up a new, free one (see the situation in
Iraq). What does that leave us? Supporting and fermenting revolutions
in said extremist countries? Should we do that in Iran and let the
people of Iran handle it themselves? Could we have done that in Iraq?
We could have probably not have done that.

There are no easy answers. To do nothing is equally bad in my
opinion. If we did nothing then we would need to take and extremely
defensive stance on everything. We would need big brother to be safe.
Who wants that?

Ultimately, the only solution to the problem of terrorism is to root
it out by a variety of methods by a variety of institutions. The Muslim
leaders must start to counter the extremist message. They must prove
they are a “Religion of Peace”. It is their responsibility to teach
peace, love, and understanding with those they disagree with. That is
on their backs, not ours. What is on our backs is to tackle the
problems of the extremist governments that are holding back the
progress of the cultures and religions contained in said countries.

What that suggests is scary. Does it give us license to conquer the
world and then give it back? I do not think that is the course of
action to take. The best path lies with a variety of solutions, from
what we did in Iraq, to supporting and inciting democratic revolutions,
to pressuring countries to change their ways, ect… If we truly want to
solve the problem of extremism, this is what it is going to take, a
world movement involving huge investments of time, manpower, patience,
pain, and money. It will involve the participation of the religions and
nations of the world working together to root out this evil.

Is our nation ready to accept that cost? Is
Christianity? Is Judaism? Is Islam? Is Hinduism? Is the United Nations?
Is the European Union? Is Buddhism? Are you?

Probably, no one is. People are too fickle. At least not until
something very devastating happens, such as nukes going off in cities,
deadly viruses devastating continental populations. If nothing is done,
something on the above scales will happen. It is not a question of
“if”, but one of “when”. Then, after the unthinkable happens, will the
world wake up and do something about this.

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