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Barbarities

It doesn’t get much more senseless than this:  a pastor in Florida conducts a mock trial of the Koran, then burns it.  No one notices, until Afghan President Karzai denounces the Koran burning and arouses the sensibilities of Muslims almost half a world away.  A group of them compounds the evil by attacking a local UN office and killing twelve, none of whom have any connection to the Koran burning (and at least four of whom were Afghans). Another nine people died today in Taliban-inspired protests in Kandahar, where the Americans have made an enormous effort to win over the local population.

This isn’t a clash of civilizations; this is a clash of barbarities.

They are not the only barbarities in today’s world.  The Red Cross says 800 were killed in fighting over a town in western Ivory Coast between the forces of president-elect Alassane Ouattara and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.  An American testified at trial that he and his U.S. Army comrades wantonly killed innocent Afghans, for the sake of entertainment.

Apart from the obvious, several of these incidents have in common something surprising:  the passion to do something “good.”  The pastor thinks the Koran is evil–that’s the avowed reason for the mock trial and Koran burning.  Those who attacked the UN compound in Mazar-i-Sharif were led by imams seeking to punish the evil that had been done to Islam. Outtara and Gbagbo are both fighting for what they claim was the legitimate outcome of an election.

What about those Americans?  Entertainment is I guess a “good” of sorts, but it really doesn’t match up with the other good causes implicated in these barbarities.  What makes it possible for Americans to kill for entertainment?

They can do this only if they view the Afghans as the “other,” a group that does not merit respect for human life.  This is likely to be the case in the other instances of barbarity as well.  The “othering” of individuals or groups is at the root of much interethnic and sectarian violence.  Americans are not immune, especially if they have reason to fear, or want to instil fear in adversaries (two sides of the same coin).

How to respond to such senselessness?  Prosecutions in Afghanistan are clearly in order.  The UN, desperately needed in Afghanistan to help with everything from negotiations with the Taliban to feeding and sheltering the poor, will not be able to stay if its staff can be murdered with impunity.  The incitement in Florida is truly irrelevant to the need for accountability in Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kandahar.

That said, the church in Florida–I don’t want to name it or give its pastor any more of the publicity he so obviously craves–is abusive.  Symbolic acts like the burning of the Koran (or of the New Testament) are constitutionally protected in the U.S.  The church folk know this and are using that protection as a shield while they attack Islam.  I have no idea how the American justice system will handle this–there is precedent for restraining people from symbolic acts that incite violence.  But it seems to me that those ideologically close this pastor have a clear responsibility to stop him from further provocations.  This includes his own parishioners as well as much of what is known today as the “Christian right,” which has been quick to ask that American Muslims restrain their own from extremism.  Good for the goose, good for the gander.

Accountability in Ivory Coast seems far off, but if Ouattara wants to avoid Gbagbo’s fate he’ll tend to it even before the fighting is over.  The appeal for Gbagbo’s people to come over to his side that I’ve published in the previous post is not enough.  He needs to restrain his own people and prevent harm to civilians, no matter whom they support.  Starting his regime with a massacre will do him no good at all.

The Americans have already tried and convicted one of the U.S. Army perpetrators.  He got off with a relatively light sentence, apparently in exchange for testimony against his buddies.  I find that disgraceful, but I suppose also unavoidable.  Let’s hope the others get what they merit, as a clear signal to the rest of our soldiers and marines that the institution they work for will hold them accountable.

My personal inclination would be to put all these perpetrators in the same prison cell together and let them sort it out.  I suppose it is better that what will happen is that the respective justice systems will slowly sort out which punishments are merited.  Let’s hope they do it quicker and better than usual.  Preventing future barbarities requires ending impunity for past ones.