Bickering Brothers

The following is is a response paper originally written for the Modern Muslim Thought class that I took as part of my religious studies program at the university I attend.  I apologize that I am not able to supply the document that I am referring to in the paper, as I cannot find a corresponding link online already and I do not have permission to publicly distribute the pdf I obtained in my class. However, the topic is certainly research ready: it was an account of a fatwa debate about the Arab-Israeli Peace Initiative that took place between Shaikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Shaikh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz. The paper follows.

Oh, al-Quds / Jerusalem, what a quandary you are. I thought of the title to this response paper by linking what I understood to be the main issue at hand. I am also reminded of a song, but think that words should be replaced… “This land is my land, no this land is my land”… The undying war has reared its ugly head. I’m going to be upfront and admit my bias. I think they (the ever fighting siblings, the Palestinians and the Israelis – or if you prefer, the Muslims and the Jews), aka Ishmael and Isaac)) are all being idiots. I do want to highlight my use of the word “fighting” as I am only shunning the ones hell bent on destroying each other. I know that there are many on both sides praying for peace, and I also know that not all Palestinians are Muslim. Another cliché comes to mind: “Can’t we all just get along?”

Ok, so now for my take on these fatwas. 

Shaikh 'Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz

I think the basic fault line between the two Shaikh is their Definition of what a Jew is. I think that Shaikh ‘Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz thinks of a Jew as a person. A person who, because of religious and power differences throughout history, may or may not, be an enemy to Muslims. I think that he would rather see the end of this conflict, even if it means, to some extent, “giving up”. Sometimes we have to realize and cut our losses in life. I think he sees what many of us throughout the world see: continuing bloodshed and senseless death over a conflict that may never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, especially when satisfaction for either party means complete annihilation of the other (here I refer to the fundamentalists or further, the extremists, on both sides). I am afraid I have to put Shaikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi in the fundie box.

Shaikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Shaikh Yusuf virtually spits hatred at Jews. Not just any particular Jew who has done him wrong, but ALL Jews. To me, he sees a Jew not as a person, but only as the enemy. I think that he might accept a situation that does not call for annihilation of all Jews, only if it meant that they surrendered Israel to Islam. I imagine by his arguments that he would see them leave as well (at least). Yusuf argues that ibn Baz’s fatwa cannot hold its own because it doesn’t apply to the reality at hand. He doesn’t see the analogy of the Quarysh tribe as making sense now. Because, that would only apply to regular enemies, not the JEW! At least that is how it read to me. The problem I find with his rebuttal to Ibn Baz is that reality is a matter that is subjective by nature. I think Yusuf sees surrender as not only weakness, but an affront to God, because how dare the Muslim give up when God is on his side? My answer? Perhaps he doesn’t understand God’s plan. What if God’s plan is to teach these disrespectful, bickering children to get along, once and for all.

What saddens me is what it usually takes to get estranged siblings to come back together…

The Apostle

click to watch the movie on my YouTube channel

            Have you ever found yourself hitting bottom, only to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and keep on going? Perhaps hitting bottom was needed to correct your perspective and set your priorities straight again. Often we humans have a tendency to get distracted from those things most important to us, only to have life slap us in the face and remind us. The Apostle is a movie that shows how a low in life can turn us around and bring us back to what made us in the first place. For the main character in this movie, he went from being a successful pastor to becoming a fugitive after losing control of himself and his anger. He repents, turns to God, and remembers his roots as a child saved by God at age seven, his dedication to the Lord, and to evangelizing.

             Sonny is introduced to us as a successful evangelical pastor that whose life is falling apart. He’s lost his wife to another man and then his church because he can’t leave her alone. He loses his children after becoming violent against his wife’s new lover, knocking him into a coma. He has fallen from his place in the community and decides to run from his sin.

Like Paul from the Bible, he wanders into the wilderness to give himself time to make sense of his situation (Gal. 1:17). Perhaps he was wandering into the wilderness to release his sins, much like the goat in Leviticus. (Lev. 16:22) Like the disciples of Jesus, he gives up his worldly goods to follow (Mark 10:21). During this time, he fasted and had visions. He baptized himself, asking Jesus and God to help him and lead him and to allow him to be an apostle. He thus becomes The Apostle, E.F.

            The Apostle decides to set off to Bayou Butte to find another pastor, as he feels led by God to do so. He declares his divine appointment to the new Pastor, and with his help, he begins building a new church, much like the one he worshiped and preached in as a child. He has memories of his childhood church and his devotion. I think that this reminds him how he was and how he should be again.

The people of Bayou Butte seem to accept him and his authority. E.F. exudes charisma, which often makes people want to follow him. He is powerful, strong in conviction and in speech, which is very persuasive. He gets everything accomplished that he says God sent him to do, which gives credence to his appointment as an apostle. E.F. is also strong in might, which he shows when a racist man attempts to cause problems at the church. Instead of the people being offended by his act of fist fighting the man, they cheer him on. He later defends the property from this man and his bulldozer with the power of the bible he set on the ground, daring the man to move it. Instead, he gets the man to confess his faith and accept Jesus. It’s hard to resist a man with such might.

Eventually, E.F. cannot escape his past anymore. He confesses to the other Pastor of his sinful deed while Sammy listens closely. It is possible that Sammy loses faith in this moment, seeing this man who he thinks so much of as a sunning human, rather than an apostle sent by God. I think E.F. realizes that although he tried to be born again new, he cannot escape the law of the earth and that his end as the apostle E.F. is coming.

He truly does seem to work peace and love in the community, helping fix up an old church, helping ease some poverty in the area by giving children money for helping, bringing people to the faith, converting and accepting a previously racist and church-hating man, giving him retribution and peace. He also loving accepts Sammy and helps convert him even though he suspects that Sammy turned him in to the Police, providing forgiveness. I think that he is driven by his guilt and his love for God to do all these things. It seemed that throughout the movie, he did things to make himself look good or to make himself feel good. When he lost his first church, he goes and sings and dances with them and publicly donates money.  Perhaps though, he is again like Paul, and his conviction and need to evangelize comes from realizing how wrong he was before (Gal. 1:13).

In his last sermon, he accepts his fate and asks his church to forgive him and urges them to continue the church in love. It’s hard to know if the church has been set up to continue past his arrest, as the charismatic leader is now gone. If we compare him again to Paul, we can see it is possible, but the Christian movement was far larger than this little church. It seems as though he asks Sammy to take his place, when he gives him his bible. Maybe Sammy will take it on, acting on his guilt of having turned in E.F. or, Sonny.

I think that his experiences with the little church help E.F. realize that he must take responsibility for his sinful deed, which is why that although he feels his end coming, he does not run again. He stays, for God, for the people, for the church, and for himself. I think that it is this act that may allow the church to continue, the fact that although he may have lied to the community by now disclosing his past, they love him and they see him take responsibility, take up his cross and bear it, no matter what it means for himself. In this way they can perhaps relate him to Jesus or to martyrs of old, including Paul, and forgive him of his evil deeds in light of his good, as he is a God fearing, God loving man like the seven year old child of his youth.

               

Written for my Birth of Christianity class on 2/19/12