Tag: hatred

A recipe for tolerance on Thanksgiving

Posted on by kathiemm

What the first celebration of colonists and native people  symbolized more than anything else was the coming together in peace of people with different languages, different ethnicities, different cultures, and different religions.

U.S. Army soldiers eat Thanksgiving meal in Afghanistan, 2009
U.S. Army Soldiers eat their Thanksgiving meal on Combat Outpost Cherkatah, Khowst province, Afghanistan, Nov. 26, 2009. Photo in public domain; from Wikimedia Commons.

The Europeans were immigrants coming into a new land. It was the native peoples who helped assure their survival through the first winter, taught them much about farming, and celebrated with them their first successful crop.

Although George Washington issued the nation’s first proclamation for a day of Thanksgiving in 1789, it was not until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, spurred by activist Sara Josepha Hale, that the November celebration was established as an annual national holiday. Lincoln’s proclamation urged all Americans to pray for “all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” These are words to live by.

Today when the drumbeat of hatred and intolerance grows louder, fueling wars worldwide, please use this Thanksgiving  to set aside your own prejudices. With your family and friends, reflect on how a key moment in U.S. history epitomized the principles of acceptance, open-mindedness and peace.

To help you set the table for tolerance, check out the Recipe for Diversity and Teaching Tolerance. And for more information about the history of Thanksgiving as a U.S. national holiday, you might enjoy this video.

Then liven up your menus with some recipes rooted in our historical traditions:
Stewed Pompion (Pumpkin)
Sullabub (a parfait-like precursor to eggnog)

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology
Pat Daniel, Managing Editor of Engaging Peace

Terrorizing with Islamophobia

Posted on by kathiemm

“I learned over time that extremists of all shapes try always to feed their extremism, and the way they do that is by digging into the news or searching in the religions of the ‘others’ so they can rationalize and feed their hate.”  –Contemporary Muslim scholar

As we move into the season that Christians consider the occasion for peace on earth and goodwill to all, we should remind ourselves of the critical importance of being alert to the ever-renewed messages of hatred.

Crusaders throwing heads of Muslims over ramparts
Crusaders throwing heads of Muslims over ramparts, by Guillaume de Tyr, 13th century. (In public domain; from Wikimedia Commons)

There has been increasing media attention to the scourge of Islamophobia infecting our vulnerable and perhaps fading democracy, but little in the way of understanding the problem.

Certainly vicious propaganda, disguised as objective consideration of “facts,” is abundant in print and in pseudo documentaries.

The claim, for example, that later statements in the Koran (sometimes condoning violence) always nullify earlier statements in the Koran (including many messages advocating peace, and demanding that women, children, and other noncombatants always be protected) is rejected by serious Muslim scholars.

Yet many people prefer to accept the propaganda than to seek greater knowledge and understanding of the Koran.

If Islam is like what [the propagandists] say, then why aren’t the vast majority of Muslims carrying arms and killing non-Muslims everywhere in the world? If Islam is evil, and if Muslims are blood thirsty people, then how do they explain the behavior of hundreds of millions of Muslims who live in peace? (One third of the world’s countries have a Muslim majority, and Muslim minorities live in almost every country in the world.)  — Contemporary Muslim scholar

Be alert. Ask yourself, what do the purveyors of hatred seek through their messages? Peace? Justice? A moral life? Or the power that can come from scaring citizens and convincing them that sacrificing democracy and human rights can somehow make them safe?

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Healing in the aftermath of 9/11

Posted on by kathiemm
Ground Zero memorial
Ground Zero (Photo by Niesy74; Permission is granted to use this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2. From WikiMedia Commons)

As we reflect back on the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, it is useful to consider the question of healing.

Let’s look at an example from the last century. The U.S. and several of its allies learned, at least temporarily, a lesson after World War I.

They learned that a rabid preoccupation with revenge and punishment can keep hatred and a desire for retaliation alive and lead to further violence. Thus, the outcome of World War I led to World War II.

The aftermath to World War II was handled differently and with wisdom, as the allies helped the Axis powers rebuild. Today Germany and Japan are major allies of the United States.

Furthermore, the U.S. government has apologized to the innocent Japanese Americans who were corralled into concentration camps in the U.S. for no reason other than their Japanese ancestry.

Today in New York City we see a reprise of the kinds of hatred and distrust being leveled at innocent Americans because of their ancestry–in this case because they are Muslims.

The efforts to stop the building of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero are fueled not just by prejudice and ethnocentrism but by the political agenda of power-seekers.

Those power-seekers know that one way to get people to follow you and build your power is to foment fear while also making them believe that you have the answers. But are they the right answers?

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Remembering September 11, 2001

Posted on by kathiemm
World Trade Center towers collapsing on 9/11/01
World Trade Center on 9/11 shortly after the second tower had collapsed. (Photo by Wally Gobetz. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. From WikiMedia Commons)

September 11 is a day that needs to be remembered and reflected on for many reasons:

  • The tragic loss of life to several thousand innocent people.
  • The reminder that violent assault on any one individual reverberates through a family, a community, and a nation.
  • The recognition that for the first time in over 100 years, Americans were attacked on their own soil, challenging their assumption that security can be achieved through armed strength alone.
  • The killing of innocent people can lead to rage, a desire to retaliate, and calls for revenge.
  • Validation of the maxim that every time an invader takes one innocent life, 10 new people join the opposition.

The intent of Terry Jones, pastor of a small evangelical church in Florida, to burn more than 200 Qur’ans on the anniversary of 9/11 can be seen as a powerful example of rage, the desire to retaliate, and an act of revenge—the kinds of behaviors that perpetuate cycles of violence, hatred, and misunderstanding.

The loss of innocent American lives on 9/11/2001 was a travesty, as is Jones’s plan to burn the holy book of millions of peace-loving Muslims around the world.

Perhaps burning the holy book of millions is not as deadly as killing an innocent person, but as General Petraeus has pointed out, it certainly provides fuel for the small militant element within Islam aiming to harm American forces in the Middle East and elsewhere.

What does Mr. Jones know of the Qur’an? Has he considered Chapter 5, Verse 32: “[I]f anyone slew a person—unless it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land—it would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.”

Does he understand that the message of the Qur’an, which overlaps significantly with the Bible, emphasizes peace and brotherhood?

Is he also aware that, like the Bible, the Qur’an contains passages that can be distorted by seekers of power within each religion to advance their own agenda?

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology