letter to the editor

The text of a letter I submitted to the editor of my local paper:

This week Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon suggested that the world has authorized Israel's use of force in Lebanon by not demanding an immediate cease-fire. Specifically, it has been reported that the United States is the only country that has blocked such a demand, and that the United States is speeding up its shipments of bombs to Israel for use in this conflict.

I do not appreciate, nor do I condone, the use of taxpayer money being used to make and ship bombs to the Middle East for Israel to continue the illegal bombing of civilian targets in Lebanon. The failure of the Administration to call on Israel to stop attacks that violate international law (which prohibit “the deliberate targeting of services essential to the civilian population”) does not speak for the entire world, the entire United States, and at least for me.

The Bush foreign policy has been to use violence to stop violence. But as I once heard someone say, “You cannot become a monster to defeat a monster.” As we have already seen in Iraq, this policy is a failure. The miscalculated use of force in the Middle East has only strengthened anti-American views and helped to create more terrorists than it has put down. The President’s continued ignoring of history and humanity has only weakened the world, and led to the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent lives in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Israel. When will these actions be called on to stop?

I encourage you to write to your editor, senator, congressman and the President calling for an end to American led violence in the Middle East.

sins of Israel, sins of silence

It is true that Hezbollah started this mess. The terrorist organization kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and has been firing rockets into civilian areas of Israel. This is wrong, and this is a sin.

But if there is a greater sin, it is in the disproportionate response from Israel. The Israeli army is breaking international law (and their country’s own religious beliefs) by attacking, destroying and killing innocent civilian targets. They say that their end goal is to dismantle Hezbollah, yet they continue to obliterate the Lebanese infrastructure, destroying homes and creating a horrible humanitarian crisis. Right now 1 out of every 5 Lebanese civilian is homeless, and the number of refugees in the tens of thousands.

Israel has been and continues to break international law by intentionally targeting civilians. Yesterday alone, Israeli jets bombed and destroyed a convoy of ambulances rushing victims of an earlier bombing to the hospital. Their white vans were clearly marked with large red crosses on the hoods and roofs, but they were bombed anyway, and their passengers were left to die inside bullet and bomb ridden rescue vehicles.

And their actions are hypocritical, too. Israel has called on the Lebanese army to dismantle Hezbollah, but then they turn around and bomb Lebanese army bases, killing soldiers who everyone agrees are not supposed to be the target.

There are the hundreds of civilians caught in the middle – mostly women and children – who have no safe place to hide. How does destroying the country solve the problem of terrorists? How is this legal? How is this justified? It is not. This is wrong, and this is a sin.

And yet there is another great sin happening as well: The sin of silence. Despite the fact that the rest of the world has called on Israel to stop the bombing, the only government Israel will listen to, the United States, has been silent. The Bush Administration will not call on Israel to stop, and so through their silence continue to allow Israel to break the law, and in the process the process actually have the opposite effect on their stated claims of wanting to spread democracy and peace through the Middle East (it is a good bet that all of the violence in Iraq, Gaza and Lebanon where the U.S. has endorced disproportionate force is probably breeding more terrorists than it is putting down... violence breeds violence).

But where the silence is most deafening is in the church. Last Sunday I sat in a sanctuary as the pastor lead the congregation in intercessory prayer. While he prayed for the individual needs of the people, and for the safe return of U.S. soldiers, there were no prayers for peace. No prayers for an end to violence. No call for those who would call themselves Christians to actually follow the teachings of Jesus and be peacemakers.

I am fairly certain that very few pastors or congregations around the country prayed for these things last Sunday. Why not? Is it bad theology? Is it Arab/Muslim racism? Is it ignorance? Or is it due to bowing down to the idol of national security and nationalism? My guess is all of the above. This is wrong, and this is a sin.

We who are Christians are called to labor together to pray for the peace of Jerusalem in the spirit of the New Testament Church and in the meek authority of Jesus, whose Kingdom bends our spears into pruning hooks and our swords into plowshares.

Let us remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual enemies who are continuing to win as long as we abdicate to violent force to bring about peace. Will more pastors pray for our Father to raise up the unlikely peace-makers of his Kingdom, the blessed ones who shall be called the sons and daughters of God?

The leaders of Hezbollah, as well as the leaders of Israel and the United States, are engaged in this sinful act of war. Where is the Church? Why are we so silent?

1 Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For evil men will be cut off,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy great peace.
Psalm 37

the new anti-semitism

I cautiously opened the email from Bob, as I always did. Bob was an old friend and active member of my church back home, and he is notorious for his forwards. Most of them fall into the “stupid dad humor” category, but from time to time he can send one that borders on tasteless.

This one was supposed to be a joke:

One day a Cowboy, an Indian and an Arab were sitting around a table. The Cowboy was kicked back in his chair with his hat pulled down over his eyes. The Indian looked at the Arab and said, “My people used to be very great in number, but now they are very few in number. This is so very sad.” Then the Arab said, “My people used to be small in number, but now we are very great in number. Why do you think this is?” Then the Cowboy sat up, tilted his hat back, looked at them both and said, “That’s because we haven’t played Cowboys and Arabs yet.”

My jaw hung open for a bit. I took a deep breath and hit the “reply” button. As politely as I could, I asked Bob to not send me this kind of stuff. I reminded him that I was half Iraqi and did not support the war. I methodically explained that, as a Christian whose family is Muslim, I could not so recklessly and brazenly abdicate to a “kill ‘em all” solution. I finished with a benediction of Christ’s call to forgiveness and peace to all of humanity, hoping it would be a subtle reminder of who we are supposed to be as Christians in a time of war.

A couple of days later Bob wrote me back:

I can respect and understand that as an Iraqi you would be opposed to this war, but as a Christian I would think that you would support Israel because that is God’s side and that is the winning side.

I should not have been too surprised by his way of thinking. For many years now I have listened as one pastor after another has delivered a message that basically says the same thing. I have sat in pews as preachers have read Genesis 21:10 (while leaving out 21:12) and ignorantly proclaimed, “You see, the Arabs are the cursed descendants of Ishmael, and so this is why there is no peace in the Middle East.”

On the first Sunday after 9-11, the pastor of the church I was attending at the time went so far as to say that the Arab attacks on New York were a result of Satan’s anger at the United States for supporting Israel, and if we wanted to continue to escape judgment as a country we must continue to support Israel in all her efforts against the descendants of Ishmael.

It is bad enough that so many leaders in the church will ignore history and politics and simply lump all the problems in the Middle East onto Arabs. But what is also troubling is that they completely ignore the trajectory of the salvation history of God. The creation intent was ADAM, which in Hebrew means “humanity.” After the fall the LORD began with a single man (Abraham) and then a people (Israel). But the trajectory continued to the Cross, through which all of ADAM is rescued. So then, even if there was a curse of Ishmael and his descendants, we now live on this side of the Cross, and the curse is broken by the blood of Christ. To cherry-pick certain stories in the Old Testament, taking them out of context, is a dangerous and irresponsible use of Scripture, which sadly happens thousands of times every Sunday across this country.

And so what is the result? I call it the “new anti-Semitism.” It must be remembered that Arabs, as well as Jews, are Semitic people. There are centuries of blemishes on the history of the world where Jewish anti-Semitism resulted in the sad persecution and murder of millions of Jews. And as everyone knows, most recently it was made manifest in the Holocaust of WWII (somewhat rooted in a German sense of Christian nationalism). But as this anti-Semitism raged through Europe (and to an extent America through a great deal of indifference), Christians, Muslims and Jews were living in relative peace in the Middle East. It was not until the powers that be in the West (probably motivated through guilt, but also through selfish interests) allowed Israel to push out the Palestinians, did the “sibling rivalry” kick into high gear.

Now in this Arab anti-Semitism, there is license given by the church to marginalize Arabs, with the idea being that they deserve their fate either because of a perceived curse of because of perceived theological realities that say Israel can do whatever she wants. As I heard one pastor say in the context of the U.S. and Israeli “war on terror”: “I don’t want to hear about the suffering of Muslim women or the plight of Arab orphans. I want to turn on my TV and see bombs dropping.”

This leaves us with a profound frustration with the church. In its hands it holds the message of the redemption and reconciliation with God and each other, through the Cross, for all of ADAM. But again the church has abdicated to planes and bombs. And what is most frightening is that many in the church will allow for the suffering and death of Arabs because they believe it will help bring about the end of the world and the rapture, and they will be swept off to heavenly bliss while the rest of the world perishes (in fact, some of those in power in some evangelical circles have used their influence in the political realm to actually block any peace between Israel and Palestine). How does this square with the teachings of Jesus that called for us to share in his sufferings and put the needs of others before our own, regardless of their race, religion or creed?

And there is also a hypocritical aspect to all of this, as well. The church may be standing in solidarity with Israel against Arabs and Muslims, but this is not born out of any genuine concern or compassion for the Jewish people. Instead, the Jews are a means to an end. In other words, the mentality that Bob had… support Israel and you get blessings. So in a real sense, there is a double anti-Semitism going on, where one side is supported and another is marginalized, but both for selfish means (which again do not square with the example of Christ).

When my dad was a small boy, and he had moved from the farm into the city of Nasiriyah, the next door neighbors were a Jewish family. On the Jewish Sabbath day (Saturday), my little Muslim father was sent next door to see if there were any odd jobs they needed done because of their strict belief in not working on the Sabbath. As my father tells it, “If they needed a light bulb changed, they’d send me over to change it.”

Religion was never at the root of the troubles in the Middle East. It was always first about real estate. Only after fundamentalists on both sides began to hijack the hearts and minds of their people, and paint the other side as the tool of Satan, did any hopes of peace fade further into the distance. The line between a terrorist who will blow up a bus and kill innocents in the name of God and country, and a citizen who will call for the military to blow up a building and kill innocents in the name of God and country, is so fine that it probably doesn’t exist.

The problem is not with the descendants of Ishmael… the problem is with the descendants of Adam and Eve.

For a more detailed account of why and how Christian leaders support Israel at the sake of Arabs, check out this article.

bombs away

I remember that during the first Gulf War, my cousins said that whenever they heard a plane fly over it was a signal to go for shelter because the bombs would start dropping. I knew some folks near Dallas who got a big kick out of a friend of theirs in the Navy who signed some tasteless comment on a bomb about killing Iraqi’s in their name before it was loaded up and dropped over Baghdad. There was such a sense of giddiness, humor and revenge in their excitement over this event. It upset my stomach, sat in my gut, and never went away.

I found these two images disturbing, and felt like they should be placed together. The first is of children in Israel. The second is of two corpses in Lebanon.

"You plant a demon seed, you raise a flower of fire." - U2





Pray for peace in the Middle East.

sabbath liturgy: prayers for peace

Through a long and unplanned series of events, tonight I found myself sitting in on a Jewish “Erev Shabbat” (Sabbath Eve Liturgy). Being that I am in my second week of an intensive Biblical Hebrew course, I spent much of the prayer service testing myself on whether or not I could pronounce the words without looking at the transliteration.

At the conclusion of the liturgy was a prayer called “The Mourner’s Kaddish.” The final lines of the prayer says, “The One who makes peace in the heights of the universe… May that One make peace among us and upon Israel.”

At the end of the prayer, Rabbi Arthur Waskow stood up – with trademark long gray beard, yalmikah, Birkenstocks and buttery accent – and with tears in his eyes and a trembling voice, said, “In my congregation, we always add a little to the end of this prayer. And tonight… again, again, again… our siblings are at war with each other. What breaks God’s heart? When one person created in God’s image kills another created in God’s image.”

Then he recited the amended prayer:

“To the One who makes peace in the heights of the universe… May that One make peace among Israel, and upon the descendants of Ishmael, and all those who dwell upon the earth. And let us say, AMEN!”

He looked at me later and said, “Don’t forget… Israel means, “Wrestles with God,” but Ishmael means, “God hears.”

May God hear our prayers for peace in the Middle East.

Lord Have Mercy


Christ Have Mercy


Lord Have Mercy

world cup wonder

Well, another World Cup is over and Italy is the champion. I heard that over a billion people watched yesterday’s final. It really does amaze me how the entire world comes to a stop to watch this tournament. The pride of whole nations rest on these games. Entire countries declare holidays to watch their team play, closing schools, banks, businesses and governments. The Ivory Coast, which has been locked in a civil war, declared a truce for the simple reason that they had made it to the World Cup. Even in Sudan, which is under the dark cloud of genocide, refugees found time and means to watch the games in the midst of death and homelessness (as seen in this picture).



The United States didn’t do very well, and their presence on the world stage didn’t cause much of stir in this country. Not much slowed down when we faced off against Italy or Ghana. Jenn mentioned that the U.S. didn’t deserve to be on the field because we don’t care about soccer in this country. And it is true that most folks here just don’t understand the big deal of a bunch of guys running up and down a field for 90 minutes, kicking a ball back and forth, and scoring one or two points at most.

When my dad first came to America in 1969 he had never heard of or seen what we call football… the NFL. He was staying with a family in Houston, and one weekend they asked him if he wanted to go see a football game between the Houston Oilers and the Buffalo Bills. Thinking it was a soccer game, he enthusiastically went along. He was so confused and frustrated. He had no concept of what was going on, and came to the conclusion that the purpose of the game was for men in armor to line up and fight until the whistle was blown. His night ended when Houston scored the winning touchdown and the women behind him spilled her beer down his back in her celebration.

His confusion is similar to a story I remember of the first NFL exhibition game played in Europe years ago, where the fans who were used to the endurance of soccer and the strength of rugby (where they tackle with no pads and don’t stop between plays) thought that American football was weak and pointless: “Look at them! They armor up, run a play for six seconds, stop for two minutes, catch their breath, and do it again! They think that’s a tough sport?”

By contrast, my step-father in law, who has Italian roots, did not have much pride welling up in his chest with yesterday’s victory because, as he put it, soccer doesn’t seem like a real sport because you just run a kick the ball. He, myself, and most of this country don’t understand the skill and strategy used in soccer, and so like American football to the rest of the world, it makes no sense to us and seems weak and pointless.

And so there is a great divide between what America thinks constitute real sports and what the rest of the world considers to be sport. And that is probably a microcosm of the bigger problem. I think we in this country tend to think that the sun rises and sets on the way we think life should be lived and consumed, and the reality of what the rest of the world faces. And to be fair, I sense that the criticism of American sport mirrors some of the mis-uderstanding many other countries have of parts of the United States.

But despite the impact of global technology and travel, we in American still live, for the most part, in a bubble. Tragedies like the September 11th attacks and Hurricane Katrina did not change the world, but in reality gave America a taste of the terror and suffering much of the rest of the world faces and lives with on a regular basis.

And you can see it in the what the rest of the world pays attention to. Compare all the different world events presented on the BBC News compared to any US network, even the 24 hour broadcasts. The rest of the world lives and moves and is aware of life outside of the bubble.

I’m not trying to say that we are all wrong and they are all right, but what I am trying to say is that it might be time to move away from the “us” and “them” categories. Our visions and vocabulary need work. New conversations need spring up. Our policies and intentions need to be shifted a few degrees. We should at least ask, “What does the entire rest of the planet see that we don’t.”

Socc…uh… Football has been a safe place to start.

kicking axis

I noticed that the President held a press conference today regarding the threat posed this week by North Korea testing missiles. His plan seems to call for a multilateral, diplomatic solution.

When George W. Bush famously made his statement to the country that Iraq, Iran and North Korea constituted and “axis of evil”, he helped fuel the idea that we needed, for the first time in our nation’s history, to preemptively invade a sovereign country that had not made any threats or attacked us. The logic was that we had to attack them before they attacked us.

Does anyone else think it a bit funny? The United States simply had to rush, guns blazing, into Iraq to snuff out phantom weapons of mass destruction (WMD), while all the while the other two members of the “axis of evil” were openly creating nuclear weapons? Different intelligence organizations in the U.S, Europe, as well as U.N. inspectors, all said, before we invaded, that there was little to no evidence that Iraq had any WMDs. And in the three years that have followed, all the evidence buried in bunkers and sand have pointed to the clear reality that there never were any.

We were told that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons (it wasn’t), that they were working with Al-Qaeda (they weren’t) and that Sadaam was threatening the United States (he wasn’t). Now we have North Korea openly saying it has nuclear weapons, openly saying it doesn’t like the United States, and openly testing long-range missiles. Doesn’t that count as a WMD threat against the United States? Weren’t we told that, on his watch, George Bush would not sit by as a ruthless dictator abused his people, refused them basic democracy, and threatened the freedom and lives of Americans? And how come there are no bombs being dropped over the fact that Iran has been a state sponsor of terrorism for years, and now is not only developing nuclear technology, but has also been a player in the terrorism we now see every day against our troops in Iraq?

So this begs the question, why did we invade Iraq? Does anyone else besides me feel like the Unites States “picked off Iraq” because it could, while all the while ignoring the real WMD threats? Did we invade Iraq because they looked like, spoke the same language, and practiced the same religion as those who attacked us on September 11th, and since we got caught with our pants down we needed an easy target? Was it a personal vendetta run by the same posse that didn’t finish the job in 1991? Could it have been oil?

So ironically, while we have been stuck in the mud in Baghdad, Iran has gone ahead with enriching uranium and North Korea keeps testing missiles.

And one other thing… does anyone else think it is a tad hypocritical that we are so worried about the “axis” using a nuclear device as a WMD against innocent Americans when we are the only country in the history of the world to use nuclear bombs against civilians?

shalom vs. salaam

After a couple of days off, the second hurdle of summer school has begun: Biblical Hebrew.

My dad always blamed his boys for never taking the initiatives to learn Arabic while growing up. Never mind the fact that he never actually spoke it around us. The only Arabic I ever heard were the cuss words when he got upset, and the unique sounds of Um Kalthum, the hero of Arabic music, drifting out Dad's office tape recorder (which to me sounded a great deal like a cat being spun around by it's tail). Besides, when I was nine years old, did I care about a language that sounded mostly like spitting and throat clearing? No....

On different occasions growing up, some cousin or uncle or co-worker of my Dad would politely pull me aside and ask if I was Muslim. I could never tell if their response to my "no" was more of a question or a command. I think it was a little of both: "Well, don't you know that your father is Muslim, and so you must be, too?" I politely responded that it didn't really matter to my dad, which looking back probably made him look a little less fatherly in their eyes (I am thanful he didn't really care what they thought).

When I got to Asbury some of those same uncles and cousins wanted to know if, when I was done studying Christianity, would I be moving on to study Islam. Again, I said no, to which I would always be met with, "Well... you need to learn Arabic."

As if all of this isn't both amusing and conflicted enough, my Dad asked me what class I was currently taking.
"Hebrew."
"Huh?"
"Hebrew."
"Why?"
"Because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew."
"Well... they've translated it into English. Study Arabic."

I can't wait to tell them Jenn and I are thinking of going to Israel in January. Last time I planned to go I was met with the same number of "whats" and told, "We don't go to Israel."

I have been engaged both on and off line in several debates and dialogues about what is happening right now between Israel and Palestine, and so I think it a tad ironic that while I have tried to be a voice for innocent civilians on the Palestinian side, I have had to spend most of my time studying Hebrew.

I hope to work through some of my thoughts and prayers regarding this mess in Gaza. There is always more to the story than we think. But until then, pray for me as a I try to get a grasp of this complex and rewarding language, and please, please, please... a thousand times please... pray for peace in the Middle East.

finding nemo (on the menu)

Finished class on Friday and immediately took off to Cincinnati for a couple of days to decompress.

There is something funny about exploring marine life like this...



...only to walk across the street and eat seafood.



This photo was an accident, but I love the way Jenn's reflection appears in the window with the shark approaching.