Our Muslim friends have just completed the month of Ramadan. Every year in the month of Ramadan all devote Muslims fast from dawn until sundown, abstaining from food, drink and sexual relations. Although the fast is obviously beneficial to health, it is also regarded principally as a method of spiritual self-purification. By cutting oneself off from worldly comforts, even for a short time, a fasting person gains true sympathy with those who go hungry, as well as growing in one’s spiritual life. This year’s observance of Ramadan falls right before the national commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
At an Iftar (breaking of the fast) dinner celebrating the Muslim month of Ramadan, President Barack Obama honored all the Muslim Americans who lost their lives on that tragic day 10 years ago. He said, “We must be the America that goes forward as one family.”
“This year and every year, we must ask ourselves: How do we honor these patriots — those who died and those who served?” he added. “In this season of remembrance, the answer is the same as it was 10 Septembers ago: We must be the America they lived for and the America they died for, the America they sacrificed for. An America that doesn’t simply tolerate people of different backgrounds and beliefs, but an America where we are enriched by our diversity. An America where we treat one another with respect and with dignity,” he said.
President Obama concluded his remarks by saying, “To the millions of Muslim Americans across the United States and more, the more than 1 billion Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a time of reflection and a time of devotion. It’s an occasion to join with family and friends in celebration of a faith known for its diversity and a commitment to justice and the dignity of all human beings. So to you and your families, Ramadan Kareem (have a kind Ramadan).”
As the West reflects upon the significance of religious zealotry and the evil it can inflict upon a civilized world, especially on the anniversary of such a terrible attack as occurred 10 years ago in our own nation, we would do well to remember that Islam is not alone in producing fanatical groups or individuals bent on terror. It’s ironic and sad that just a few months before the Sept. 11th anniversary another supposedly religiously inspired act of terrorism unfolded in Norway. The senseless mass murder that took place in Norway was initially believed by many to be another Muslim inspired attack. Right-wing websites quickly pointed the finger at “jihadist,” and Pamela Geller, publisher of the website “Atlas Shrugs” and executive director of “Stop Islamization of America,” wrote on her site: “You can ignore jihad but you cannot avoid the consequences of ignoring jihad.”
We all leaned that the perpetrator of the Norway massacre was Anders Behring Brevik, described by police in Norway as a “right-wing Christian fundamentalist.” He seemed to be inspired to kill innocents as a way of motivating Christians worldwide to organize and attack the Muslim world. It came to light after the massacre that he was also inspired by some of the best known critics of Islam in Britain and the United States who were cited in his rambling 1,500 page manifesto. To many this seemed proof that Islamophobic talk, even of the most cerebral kind, could have a cost in blood.
Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue wrote in his letter to Muslims at the end of Ramadan this year, “Christians and Muslims are often witnesses to the violation of the sacred, of the mistrust of which those who call themselves believers are the target. We cannot but denounce all forms of fanaticism and intimidation, the prejudices and the polemics, as well as the discrimination of which, at times, believers are the object both in the social and political life as well as in the mass media.”
As we commemorate the atrocious events that took place 10 years ago, let us not indiscriminately scapegoat any religion and let us work together for greater respect and mutual understanding among people of good will. We join Cardinal Tauran at this year’s end of Ramadan to our Muslim friends as he concluded his letter saying that the Catholic community is “spiritually very close to you, dear friends, as we ask God to give you renewed spiritual energy as we send you our very best wishes for peace and happiness.”
Father Joseph D. Wallace is coordinator, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs, Diocese of Camden.
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