Islam: The Enemy Within?

The tragic Fort Hood shootings has generated some interesting recent correspondence. Being a pastor and all, I've somehow gotten onto the email lists of a series of organizations that assume I think the same way they do.

The most recent message was from a place proclaming itself the Freedom Center, which appears to be mostly a guy by the name of David Horowitz. He informs me that "radical Muslims have infiltrated America's Military." He likes to use boldface when something is really important. I suspect he uses the same approach while talking. There is , according to Horowitz, a "vast internal threat in this country, and we need to fight it."

That threat is Islam. Well, he calls it "radical Islam," but given that objective research shows that American Muslims are moderate and well-adapted to our pluralist society, I think he's casting his net a little more broadly. In fact, once you read his website, it's clear: all Islam is the threat. It is, for Horowitz, an inherently bad religion. Every Muslim is a potential threat. Having attempted to ratchet up my panic level, Horowitz then hits me up for money to support his organization, which is, as he describes it, a voice in the wilderness that needs my $25. Or perhaps that's a voice in the wilderness. Lord help us if he ever discovers the caps lock key.

Were it just him shouting, I might not worry. But all of the American Right is beginning to take up that hue and cry. Krauthammer was on about it yesterday in the Post...the idea that namby pamby liberals aren't aware of the terrible threat posed by Islamic jihad. About how the Fort Hood shootings were enabled by the politically correct folks who just lack the testicular fortitude to come right out and say that the problem is Islam. Not in Afghanistan. Right here.

Unlike many of my liberal brethren, I struggle occasionally with Islam. Not with Muslims. Not with what most Muslims are today, living lives of charity, humility, and submission to God. I also don't let the fanatics define Islam for me. Every faith has it's nutjob fringe, and the ignorant hatred of the mullah-fired mobs who protest and stomp around has more to do with political oppression and poverty. My greatest struggle has been with the Qu'ran itself, which I have pored through intentionally seeking commonality with the ethical heart of the Christian faith, and have been disappointed. But that's another post for another time.

What I see happening on the American Right now is a hunger for an enemy. Major Hasan was not a fifth columnist. He was a nutjob who glommed on a hateful ideology that has no real purchase in this nation. He's not part of a "vast internal threat," any more than the Holocaust Museum shooter was representative of a significant neo-Nazi resurgence in America. As Americans continue to struggle economically, and paranoiac populism takes hold in the core of one of our two political parties, there's real danger that neo-cons and political infotainers will seize on the fears of many.

If America's economy starts to badly tank, and we start looking for scapegoats, that poison will spread. It already seems familiar, cut from the same cloth as another American movement that bellowed and fretted over an unseen enemy within. Lord help us if it takes hold.

Pushing Acorns Around

As the pastor of a little church, my duties are rather more varied than those of the regional CEOs of AmeriChrist, Incorporated. I'm not just responsible for spiritual guidance and sermons. I'm also the guy who goes up on the roof and cleans gutters. Or who weeds the parking lot. Or who digs trenches in the pouring rain to stop the youth group room from flooding.

Today, I was the guy who sweeps up acorns. We've got a huge oak tree by the side entrance to the church, and every Fall it rains down a squirrel's fantasy, a cornucopia of nuts. The walkway to the office gets completely covered with acorns, and in the interests of keeping older church folks from taking a tumble, I found myself behind a broom today, driving acorns scattering before me.

For an obvious reason, this got me thinking about the new favorite whipping-boy of American conservatism: ACORN. It's the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a loosely organized agglomeration of folks who attempt to get low income communities to engage politically. It is also, if FoxNews and most of the right-wing blogosphere are to be believed, a dangerous radical organization with a powerful influence over the American political process. Even my denomination's ultraconservatives are getting in their licks.

This is hooey. There are other words that might be more accurate, but hooey is the only one that's permissible to a pastor.

I used to have a solid awareness of the American nonprofit world through my work at the Aspen Institute, with a broad sense of who the major organizations were and what sorts of influence they brought to bear both locally and nationally. I once shared a beer with one of the founders of ACORN, which makes saying this a little awkward. ACORN...well...it was...um...just not a player. By that, I don't mean it wasn't a player advocating for policy on the national scene. It's focus is too intentionally local for that. But even among the subset of organizations that follow the community organizing model touted by Saul Alinsky, ACORN has never seemed like the most effective entity. Perhaps that's because of my own local experience.

In the Washington Metropolitan Area, the local Washington Interfaith Network seems far more influential, as do other affiliates of the Industrial Areas Foundation. I see the fruits of their organizing regularly in local media...but ACORN has never really reached that level of prominence. Part of that, in my opinion, comes from ACORN's more secular focus. It hasn't engaged as deeply as other Alinskian organizations with faith communities in blighted areas, which means it lacks as deep a connection to organic networks within struggling communities. What is more significant, I think, is the membership composition of ACORN. It's membership is often on the margins of our society, and it can be somewhat marginal itself.

It's not, up until recently, an organization well known to most Americans. And that means it's an easy target for folks who need something to fear. Honestly, watching American conservatism focus it's umbrage on ACORN feels pretty much like watching a bully in action. Bullies look for the marginalized kid, the isolated one out there on the periphery of the playground, and then they attack. Kicking that little kid around does make 'em feel good, but it's hardly a major accomplishment, no matter how much they crow and brag about it.