Revisiting Islam

I was asked to offer up reflections of my article that was published in my local newspaper, to add more depth and lessons learned of the experience. It has taken me right back to that time, perhaps the last time I can truly recall being spiritually on fire.

This isn't to say that I am not working on developing my faith, deeper and more practically in my life. But I miss the adventure, the excitement, the thrill of discovery and the opening up of my heart, mind and soul. For as confusing as that time of my life was, in hindight it was a time of great learning and growth.

I was talking with a guy I work with who was intrigued with my adventure and he made the comment that he was told that Muhammad was angry. Interesting perspective. I suppose we could easily find verses or traditions, isolated in their context, to support that view. We could just as easily find verses that show Muhammad to be quite passive. Context, baby.

I noticed also the fuss about building a mosque around the site of Ground Zero. We have made an idol out of 9/11. This isn't to dismiss the tragedy. This is to put it in a larger context. Other places around the world have experience tragedies to greater degrees.

But a bunch of militants penetrating right into the heart of America and destroying one of its prominent symbols of power or, if you will, hubris. Considering America's place in the world over the past hundred years or so, no murderous event in recent memory has been as symbolic, on many levels. Even the Oklahoma city bombing, by one of America's own, lacks the significance due not only to power of the imagery but to the religious ideology that has been laid on top of the act.

So a mosque at Ground Zero? Religiously, I have no problem with it. This isn't the controversy. The controversy is the politicized nature of the act. On one hand it is an attempt to heal this rift between Islam and the West; on the other hand, it reveals a certain insensitivity to the symbolic nature of what happened and shows a lack of awareness at the seething rage that lies under the surface of many Americans.

I say move it forward, see what happens. America is a free country. We are free to build a mosque at Ground Zero; we are free to debate it and argue against it. Such is the nature of the freedom granted in the ideals of America. If America is going to become a Muslim nation it is going to become Muslim. Whatever happens is going to happen exactly as it is supposed to happen. If it does become a Muslim nation it is because no other ideology is strong enough to unify the citizens of the United States.

Don't blame Islam; look in the mirror.