Does that sound odd? Should it? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s how I feel. Rather, that’s how I hope I feel. I don’t know if I can pull it off.
The criticism I’ve been hearing of Ft. Hood shooter Maj. Malik Hasan today centers around this comment, from a classmate of his:
Well, Hasan gave a presentation on whether the war on terror was a war on Islam. I raised my hand immediately. I questioned why that type of topic was being presented at because it was so off-base, and it was allowed to continue. His radicalism grow throughout the year. He would make frequent comments that he was a Muslim first and an American or an officer second, and also that, you know, Islamic law, Sharia law took precedence over the Constitution. And we all became concerned because he’s a sworn officer of the United States and he’s supposed to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Yet his loyalties lied elsewhere.
That seems to bother people…at least the ones on TV and radio. But what does that really mean? Does it mean he’s some psychotic fanatic who was a ticking time bomb? Does it mean that anyone willing to say they hold their religion above their nationality or country of origin should be watched with suspicion?
Maj. Hasan’s belief that he is a “Muslim first” isn’t what we should be worried about as a country. It is, however, something that Christians should be thinking about. How many of us would say we are Christians first, and Americans second? How many would say it in front of a crowd of people? What about a crowd of non-believers?
How many of us would be willing to act on that statement? How many would be willing to stake their jobs and their friendships on that belief? Maj. Hasan went off the rails in a lot of ways, but this wasn’t one of them.
Alan Noble
Great post, Charles. I completely agree. This lecture by Dr. William Cavanaugh makes a similar point about how Nationalism has become the defacto state religion. He cites examples like the one you give here to show how Americans have accepted the idea that religion must be secondary to our allegiance to the state. I highly recommend the lecture:
http://www.veritas.org/media/talks/709
More from authorCharles
I’ll definitely get to that lecture when I can. Thanks for the link.
Thomas Twitchell
“Maj. Hasan went off the rails in a lot of ways, but this wasn’t one of them.”
Yes it was. For a Christian the church is not the state, but for a Muslim, Islam is. There is no other state but Islam. So for a Muslim to proclaim allegiance to Islam is to declare jihad against the secular state in which he lives. For a Christian who looks for a country not of this world, it is not same thing. A Christian can and must declare allegiance to Christ above all else. What we mean is categorically different for as Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world or his disciples would fight, but the Muslim kingdom is of this world and world conquest is the means of actualizing Islam, the recapturing of the entire planet for Allah.
There are two senses which nationalism is must be viewed. Since you capitalized it, Alan, you must mean the political/ideological entity, and not mere partriotism. I know of few Christians, (I don’t know any personally), who are Nationalists in the first sense, that sense being, that the expansion or defense of national identity is the means and the goal. The Nationalists identify state with the individual as having the same goals and beliefs. Or as the fasci thinking goes, the state is the man for the state is the creation of man in his image. I don’t know any who believe that only a certain ideological adherence should be the grounding for citizenshi as Nationalists do. That is true in Islam which is why Hitler and Musolini had nothing but glowing praise for its madness and methods. I would agree there are certain fanatics who use the label Christian who push the establishment of a Christian Nationalist state, they are however few, and heretical at their core and therefore not Christian.
So yes, unequivocably, a Muslim declaring his allegiance to Islam is not the same at all as a Christian declaring his allegiance to Christ. My guess is this, Alan, you would pick up a gun and defend the flag and do so with justification grounded in your core beliefs, and if you’re Christian, it would be because you have concluded it proper to defend the U.S. because it is first and foremost establhished to defend its weak and fatherless against those who would exploit them, right?
By declaring my allegiance to Christ first, I do not plot or plan to kill you if you are not a Christian. To be a true Muslim, defacto, is to carry out the mandates of the faith and that is to convert or destroy all who do not obey Allah. So when someone declares their allegiance to Allah and shows open hostility to the host state (remember Muslims only believe in the universal state of Islam meaning all pretenders are infidel occupiers wherever they are found), it sounds the alarm. They mean to kill you, sometime, somehow, somewhere.
More from authorCharles
You forget that Maj. Hasan hadn’t showed open hostility before the shooting. He simply stated, as a religious man, that his religion was more important than his country. Stating his support for Sharia is a little different, but putting your religious beliefs before your national identity is the way it should be.
Also, your notion that “for a Muslim to proclaim allegiance to Islam is to declare jihad against the secular state in which he lives” is to say that every Muslim, not just those who are radicals, or those who are “Muslim first”, is a traitor, pledged to destroy us.
A writer for The American Muslim says, “The Qur’an, the book which Dr. Savage said is a “book of hate,” tells me: “There is no compulsion in matters of religion.” (2:256)” My guess is that the Qur’an, not being inspired, has plenty of internal conflict, so multiple messages may be found inside its pages. Not all include jihad.
I’m not here to defend Islam, but unless you’re ready to arrest and detain every Muslim on US soil, you need to rethink this argument.
Alison
I like the new look.
The angle that nobody has mentioned is that PSYCHIATRISTS are screwy!
Just thought I’d throw in my $120 per 1/2 hr’s worth!!!