I don’t know much about ISIS.
I’m a fairly regular American Muslim.
I make the five daily prayers. I fast the month of Ramadan. I give to charity, and I go to the mosque on Fridays.
I try to read the Qur’an every day. I study with teachers. I travel to see them, if I have to. I attend lectures, seminars, retreats, online courses.
I was on the board of directors of our local mosque for three years, and served as president for two.
I have prayed in dozens of mosques around our region. I have friends in all of them.
Yet I have no idea who ISIS is.
I read news, of course. I see articles on Facebook and Twitter. I talk with my friends from Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, France, Iraq.
This terrorism, it’s unfathomable. An airport. A train station. A tourist street. A children’s playground. A youth soccer game. One moment, you’re playing with your kids on a swingset.
The next, I can’t even imagine. I choke up just thinking about it.
There is a saying in our tradition, that if you see an injustice you should change it with your hands. If you are not able to change it with your hands, you should change it with your tongue. If you cannot change it with your tongue, you should dislike it in your heart.
I’m young and healthy. I have some strength and some resources. But I can’t protect the Aramaicspeaking Christians of Syria. Or the ancient Jewish community of Aleppo. Or the Yazidis of northern Iraq. I can’t restore the Roman ruins of Palmyra, the ancient monasteries of Mosul, or the tomb and mosque of the Prophet Jonah, may peace be upon him.
If I had the power, I would certainly protect them, just as 70 generations of Muslims before me protected them. Yet my hands have little power to change this. I must try with my words.
What would I say if someone, somewhere, expresses sympathy for ISIS?
I would argue with him. I would tell him that “ISIS” is really just organized crime: smugglers, human traffickers, extortionists, thieves. That they are criminals who convince fools to become terrorists by lying about religion. That they merit no respect in either religion or politics. That they are cowards who hide their faces while spreading hatred and chaos.
And if someone wants to travel to “join the cause?” Or, God forbid, to kill people randomly in their name?
I would tell him that it’s far, far better to go to prison. Repentance is possible in prison.
But I have never, not even once, heard a single person express sympathy for ISIS. For one thing, these criminals don’t come to mosques. Almost every mosque in the U.S. is in contact with the FBI, the local police and district attorney, through partnerships formal and informal. If a criminal were to come to our community, we would do our part to bring him to justice.
There are people in this world who sympathize with ISIS. From what I understand, most of them are already lost in crime, or mental illness, or both. Until I meet such a person, I can only write. I hope and pray that these words will reach some of them, and help convince them to turn back, to choose another path. But I have no control over that, and perhaps that’s why the tongue, and the pen, are second best.
I remember the third option: “If you cannot change injustice with your tongue, then dislike it in your heart.”
This reminds me of another saying from our tradition: “God will not change the condition of a people until they change the condition of their hearts.”
I pray I can do more.
Patrick Bensen lives in Greenfield.