Mein Kampf is a book that many would be embarrassed to be seen with. In it, Hitler details his hatred of the Jews, his plan to expand the domain of the Germanic peoples at the expense of others, his belief in racial destiny, and other things acted upon in the 1930’s and 40’s. The Social Studies teacher will say in the same breath that it is full of the kind of hateful ideas that should not be given attention or even read, and propose that if only some had read it before the rise of Hitler to political power, much pain could have been avoided. If only we had taken what he wrote seriously, the dictator would not have appeared so enigmatic, at once socially progressive and warlike.
Today, few people, beside the party faithful read the Koran. It is a blueprint for dealing with the infidel, the Jew, the Christian, those who do not share the totalitarian vision of triumph of Islam. Perhaps if some read the book, they would not be surprised at events like that which occurred twenty five years ago in New York and Northern Virginia. But then to read the book and take it seriously would expose the non-muslim reader to some unpleasant truths.
Today on “The Weekend with Michael Brown”, we heard that the diary and funerary instructions of Muhammed Atta, one of the assassins flying a plane into the World Trade Center on 9/11, contained all the explanation you would ever need for what was perpetrated. That the reasoning flowed from beliefs about Atta’s duty before Allah, and that if taken seriously, these clear expressions of intention would allow us to be wary of similar actions in the future by knowing who perpetrates them. Then a strange thing happened.
Brown went on to give his prescription for who must be excluded from American Society. Not muslims. Why? No one should be excluded because of faith. Ideology is the thing that should be guarded against, never faith. Actions and not religious beliefs. As he talked, it became more and more obvious that Brown does not believe that Faith has any connection with actions in everyday life. That faith is confined to buildings (we shouldn’t exclude people because of the building they worship in), that the constitution does not allow us to do that. This may be true, but his assertion that we can and should guard against ideology is a distinction without a difference. It comforts people who have been raised in what they believe is the tilight of the gods, the time when God is dead, that Faith is akin to the choice of a color for your house: it should not jar the neighbors, but is ultimately an outward show that says nothing about the interior.
I wonder if he would feel the same about the worship of Molok, who is served by the incineration of infants. After all, this is a faith tradition.
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