Faith and Understanding

dueler88

Many of my professional colleagues (a liberal profession in an overwhelmingly liberal city) think I’m crazy when I tell them I believe that Islamic Militants are a VERY serious threat – one that is more serious than most of us are aware. So who is right? Am I crazy to believe that Islamic Militants have the power to wreak havoc on, and eventually destroy, the Western World?

I can’t claim to be the most faithful person on the planet; my personal journey of is something that is between God and me. But I should be able to claim at least *some* familiarity with the inner soul-searching and an understanding of how a mind can be influenced by Faith.

To put it simply, I think that a big reason why the danger of Militant Islam is underestimated by so many people is because those great many people don’t fully understand the concept of Faith.

The American Judeo-Christian tradition is one of both deep faith and of tolerance. The few anomalies of this not withstanding, our notion that Faith is not necessarily universal is what roots this tradition. Deep religious faith is arrived upon only through personal soul searching. What then necessarily follows is that no one person can determine the type or depth of faith in any other person. Evangelizing and “testifying” are the only methods that come close to being able to determine the faith of another person. One can speak with as loud a voice as they want, but this does not guarantee that anybody around them will listen and understand.

If a person has never experienced the inner soul-searching of faith, I seriously doubt that they could begin to grasp the depth of motivation on the part of a faithful person. This motivation can result in tremendously uplifting and loving acts of kindness and selflessness towards others. But it can also result in brutally destructive acts of violence and hatred. And often the difference between how one views these acts depends upon one’s personal faith. The act of beheading another human being is repulsive to most of us. But to a Militant Islamist, that act is a profound pronouncement of faith and love towards God. To understand how the meaning of such an act can be so different to two different people, and how that meaning is manifested in faith, is the beginning of being able to see Militant Islam as a serious existential threat.

Today, it is a scimitar beheading a single person. Tomorrow, it could just as easily be a 1-megaton warhead detonated in a major metropolitan area. Motivation and Faith remain. The degree of opportunity to express them is what changes.

Most of us can’t even imagine a situation where we would be compelled to kill one, let alone thousands, of our fellow human beings, with or without remorse. Even a secular humanist, though, can recognize that they would likely kill another person if the safety of their children is at stake. Perhaps a clear understanding of that secular humanist’s internal motivations to protect their children at any cost is the beginning of understanding the threat of Militant Islam.

I would like to caution the reader, however, that a war against Militant Islam could easily morph in to a war against Faith. But we must remember that foremost in our cultural philosophy is the irrevocable right to self-determination. That is, the right to determine our place in the world. Our meaning. Our Faith.