Considering Community
One recognizable but little discussed aspect of rights in developed nations is the denial of the same Enlightenment tools of analysis enjoyed by those who see themselves as protectors of the oppressed to those who criticize not the comfortable complacencies of Western nations but the all too frequent horrors of their prior communities.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a courageous woman originally from Somalia and now always under the constant and legitimate threat of murder as a citizen in the West, is a noteworthy but not untypical example. There are many who would like her to keep her mouth shut – she is an annoying distraction and troublemaker. But there is a more fundamental problem than being forced to confront the ugly truth that much of the world would happily deny you your comforts.
Elite, transnational cosmopolitanism is attractive for those able to insulate themselves and their children in private schools and gated communities. It is easy to not worry much about the currents of culture. But for everyone else, there is the legitimate concern: what is a nation? What values will its communities convey to our children? A respect for national symbols, for the values and opportunities they can represent, is vital to the fostering of trans-generational connections within the nuclear family that make for a vibrant community.
Patriotism, a love that endures across criticisms, is an actual thing, grounded in the soil and in the actual people. It is an attachment to place, to memories, to things, to groups, to causes. It does not love what Might Be In the Future, once humans are able to finally fix the flaws. It is not a love for the abstract idea of What Should Be. This too easily devolves into paranoia and narcissism. This is not to say we cannot dedicate ourselves to amending the nation, ideally through the example of the Risen Christ. But it does mean that we should respect the nation because it is our people who constitute it, and Christ calls us to love others as we love ourselves. There is no other place to begin than with our neighbors, those whom God has placed in our immediate path.
Nation comes from the Latin nasci, which means to be born or generated. Nations engaged in a form of self-governance are a collection of people practicing a rare and fragile thing. They must never lose the ability to distinguish between the fanatical and a rational thinker, between those with literal boots at their throat and those wallowing in the cheap devolution of the term, wanting in some way to claim to be oppressed. What it means to be a healthy community, free of the narcissism that leads to decay, depends upon it.
Community is local, or should be. Ideally (from a practical rather than a utopian perspective), there would be a supra-national authority and a collection of regions with devolved decision-making. It would cut out the nation state, an artificial creation. After all, the decline of Europe really began with the rise of nationalism in the 16th century. As a Catholic, I believe in ties to the local community, and to the universal Catholic Church. I’m not fond of loyalties to the nation state.
And by the way, Ali is a troublemaker. If you paint verses of the Koran on your naked body and make a movie about it– sorry, but this is provocative. Plus, Ali is an avid secularist, a hater of religion in public life.
Give me a break. A trouble-maker?
Ali is a vocal critic of radical Islam, whose violence she has experienced first-hand. That she both requires protection and that so many make excuses for those who threaten to kill her is an embarassment and a sign of cultural weakness.
We should be loudly proclaiming: you may disagree, and that’s great. But your threats of violence – and the actual violence!!!, especially against women – are over the line and will never be tolerated.
And it is astonishing that so many in the intelligentsia are slandering, silencing, or ignoring the friends of decency.
We should support Ali strongly, we should be supporting Necla Kelek and Bassam Tibi strongly, and all those who are warning us about the dangers of the cult of multiculturalism.
Not all values are equal. Let’s not be so open-minded and accepting that our brains fall out.
What has developed is a dehumanizing contempt for the truly oppressed among those who want to morally preen by criticizing only the West….this hurts women the most, and its wholly unacceptable.
Em, no, standing up firmly for human rights and human dignity is what we should be doing, and that means addressing the conditions of women in Islamic countries. That does NOT mean we should embrace every single person who opposes Islam on these grounds. As I said, Ali is an avid secularist, a hater of religion in public life.
Her religious beliefs are totally irrelevant. Haters of religion in public life deserved to have a voice, and it is wrong to be cavalier when that voice can mean death, especially in your own country.
Come on, she’s the Muslim Christopher Hitchens, right down to her “bomb the middle east” rhetoric. No wonder she is sitting at the AEI.
she’s the Muslim Christopher Hitchens,
I doubt Hitchens spends much time worrying that he might be killed by those offended by his rhetoric.
MM, would you condemn those who want her dead? And condemn their reasoning? Would you recognize this principle is important: if you disagree with the words or actions of an individual, you do not have the right to homocide? Don’t those who might legitimately commit such actions deserve watching and criticism?
It is entirely proper to keep those who want to implode liberal democracies out. Systems of self-governance will not survive without the widespread recognition that fundamental rights are not selective.
After growing up in the environment that she did, I do NOT blame Ali for being as passionately secular as she has become.
Ali is NOT respectable or credible. She has been caught making up stories and lying throughout her life; her own family often points out the errors in her claims. She reminds me of Jack Chick and his claims about Catholicism… same kind of mentality and spirit. And it is quite clear she is only given the voice she is because many people in the Netherlands have an issue with immigration as well and she has become a voice against their immigrants (similar to the kinds of racist rhetoric one hears about Mexicans and how they are all criminals).
Henry,
There are substantial differences between the US and the Netherlands when it comes to immigration. There is now a significant portion of the population in the Netherlands that toally rejects the culture of the state in which they live and wish to undermine the state. It is certainly not true of all Muslims there, and maybe not of a majority of them, but to dismiss people’s concerns as racism is uncharitable and unwise. When it becomes clear that immigrants reject the civic values of the state to which they have come, why should the state encourage further immigration?
I am not a big fan of Ali, given her problems with honesty and the harshness of her rhetoric, but it certainly doesn’t warrant the death threats she’s received, and I’m glad the US has offered her refuge when the Dutch stopped providing her with police protection.
MM,
Although community should start with locality, it is not clear to me that it ends there. The nation-state was not exactly invented by Westphalia or 19th century nationalism, since France and England had essentially been nation-states for 200 years at that point. And you see the importance of the English nation as a consistent theme throughout historical writings from the Anglo-Saxons onward.
Note there were also national synods of bishops (with doctrinal authority, I believe) throughout history, including in 19th century America. Just because it isn’t as tangible as a local community doesn’t mean that the nation is meaningless. Just ask any Pole, including John Paul II.
Zak,
First, there is a big immigration issue, and all mass immigrations bring out the xenophobia, and a major portion of what is going on in the Netherlands is xenophobia and violent reaction to violent xenophobia. Both are wrong.
As one who is opposed to the law of violence which says one is to use violence as a means of power to overcome one’s enemies, I agree, Ali should not be given death threats; however, we must realize that 1) it is not necessarily a Muslim thing and 2) Muslims have also recieved death threats for being Muslim in the said region and 3) in other places, such as in the United States, Muslims recieve death threats and 4) in other places, such as in the United States, many use these examples to follow through with their own threats of violence (military threats, such as “shock and awe).
As Berdyaev points in the quote of the week, not only do I agree it is bad here, Christians have a blind spot for those of their own who do similar (and we should acknowledge and renounce death threats and violent ridicule given to those who see themselves fighting against Christianity in similar means — Piss Christ, for example, an evil work, in similar vein to what Ali has done, has — with far less press — recieved similar violent responses).
Why don’t Muslims consistently and unequivocally condemn the vocal and violent contingent among them in the West? There are more than a few former and “liberal” Muslims – many of whom live in fear like Ali – who will tell us the reasons, if we would only listen. Mosques are often funded by radical Saudi sources, the idiocracy over various cartoons, the London and Madrid bombings, the police no go areas in the Paris suburbs and elsewhere, the marches with slogans and signs like “behead those who insult Islam” and on and on.
Radical Islam is a significant problem, and it’s perfectly reasonable to adjust immigration policies accordingly.
Jonathan
Actually, they do speak out and consistently. The problem is (as in other forms of media propaganda, like Pravda) the US does not get to hear them and they are silenced and made to appear non-existent.
Moreover, the Christian response is still the Christian response, whether or not the Muslims follow it. Don’t go “they do evil, so there” as a response.
That wasn’t my response. When Ali and others (Rita Katz, Ibn Warraq) have to live under police protection, and under assumed names, in the West because of they could be murdered for their opinions it is a significant problem, and responses like xenophobia/racism don’t address it.
When Theo Van Gogh and Oriana F. and Rocco B. among others cannot criticize Islam the way they would criticize Judiasm or Christianity or athiesm for fear of being sued or losing their status – or worse in today’s world, being accused or racism – something is wrong.
The humane and Christian response is to stand up and say that practices like forced marriage, genital mutilation, plural marriage, and honor killings are not acceptable in our societies.