| We Are
Not Afraid
September 16, 2009
Responsible for Equality And
Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
by Jeffrey Imm
http://www.realcourage.org/2009/09/we-are-not-afraid/
http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/blog/144.html
Responsible for Equality And
Liberty's (R.E.A.L.) goal in outreach to the public on human rights
is based on our commitment to human dignity and respect. We seek to
defend
the truths that we hold self-evident - that all men and women are
created equal - and that they have inalienable
human rights
of such equality and liberty.
Some believe that this is an "optimistic" view towards humanity. Some
believe that this is a "naive" view towards humanity. A week ago, I was
at a meeting on "building a culture of peace," where the speaker
gloomily responded to a question from me that he does not hold out much
hope for democracy, and thinks that democracy's days are numbered. Some
believe that fear, anger, and hopelessness are the human condition.
We disagree. We believe that humanity can do better than that. We
believe that courage, love, and hope are the human condition that we
must positively aspire towards building.
We have had many public awareness events and rallies. In one form or
another, we traditionally begin such events with either the song or the
rallying cry: "We are not afraid." At the
United States
Capitol building, at the
Lincoln Memorial, at the
Washington Monument, in
Chicago, in
New York City, we start with the verse from the song "we shall
overcome," entitled "we are not afraid."
We are NOT afraid.
We believe that to be a
people responsible for equality and liberty, we need to put our fear
away. This does not mean that we do not recognize that we have threats
and challenges. This does not mean that we do not recognize that there
are ideologies that are inimical to our universal human rights of
equality and liberty. But we can choose how we will react to such
threats and such enemies of freedom, and we can choose how we will
educate others and defy such challenges. We can choose to act in fear.
Or we can choose to act in courage. It is our choice.
Fear does not lead to responsibility. Fear does not lead to hope. Fear
silences love and respect. Fear is the antithesis of the real courage
that we must have to defend our fellow human being's human rights.
And fear leads to hate.
There are some that have grown so used to doing things reflexively out
of fear that they no longer realize it. Fear has controlled their
thinking and their behavior so totally and for so long that it has
programmed their lives. For some organizations, fear has even become a
basis for their activism and for their slogans.
Sadly, we see so many organizations that are dependent on and based on
fear. We don't forget that fear is the tool that supremacists and
totalitarians use as well. That is why it is so essential for positive
activist groups and human rights groups to begin by rejecting fear. We
are NOT afraid.
Some groups use the very idea of fear in the text of their
group's slogan. The
"Stop Islamization of Europe"
(SIOE) group has chosen the
slogan that states: "Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity,
but Islamophobia is the
height of common sense." While intending to be clever, sadly their
slogan reveals much about what they really believe, as
does their references to "Nazislam."
SIOE
states that it "does not accept the notion of moderate Muslims."
We understand that the leaders of the "Stop Islamization" network are
afraid. We understand that they feel threatened. We understand that they
feel desperate. But as I have stated before, European organizations
could learn a lot from American challenges to supremacism, such as the
prolonged struggle in America with racial supremacism.
Can you imagine if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had sought to promote
human rights by promoting "Whiteophobia" as "common sense"? But history
shows us that he did not. He
challenged the
anti-freedom ideology of "white supremacism" to call for change, and
he promoted the universal human rights that all human beings deserve
everywhere, of every faith, of every race, of every gender, and of every
national origin. He did not choose fear and hate, he chose courage and
love. When we are faced with great challenges, it is essential that we
choose wisely.
Fear does not promote human dignity, respect, and dialogue. Fear does
not promote healthy societal change. Fear does not promote human rights.
So if the fear-based "Stop Islamization" network is not working to
promote human rights, what exactly are its goals?
SIOE states that it seeks "a free, open and honest debate about the
place, if any, of Islam within Western democracies."
Responsible for Equality And Liberty accepts the most basic of our
universal human rights, as
defined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
-- Article 1: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act
towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
-- Article 2: "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set
forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as
race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore,
no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to
which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust,
non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty."
-- Article 3: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of
person."
In America, we accept freedom of religion as a guaranteed freedom for
all human beings. Like freedom of speech and freedom of press, we don't
have to like or agree with every other religion. But in America, we have
that guarantee to everyone we like and to everyone we don't like. Such
freedoms are a bond of trust between the inalienable rights of equality
and liberty inherent in our identity and defined in our Constitution.
We are NOT afraid.
The European-based "Stop
Islamization" network is now about to announce a chapter in the
United States called "Stop
Islamization of America (SIOA)." The SIOA promotes the SIOE and the
larger "Stop Islamization" network on its web page, including links to
all of the European groups that promote "Islamophobia" as part of the
SIOE slogan. The
SIOA states that "our
values and goals are in support of the entirety of Western
civilization."
We believe that a fear-based "Stop Islamization" network is not the
answer for defending our
universal
human rights for all of humanity. We believe that equality and
liberty are not just "our
values," nor are they unique to
"Western civilization."
When Responsible for Equality And Liberty supports universal human
rights for humanity, we support such
universal
human rights for all people
everywhere.
We reject the idea that the truths we hold self-evident of humanity's
inalienable rights of equality and liberty are unique to any one
"civilization" or "culture."
Moreover, we believe that is the root concern that we must challenge
today. On the SIOA website, a leader and attendee at a European SIOE
event states that
"multiculturalism, tolerance, and 'niceness' are destroying the
foundations of our cultures," but that misses the point. In fact, our
liberties are based not on individual "cultures," but on our
universal
human rights of equality and liberty.
Our challenge to ideologies that defy such universal human rights are
not because we reject diverse cultures, not because we reject
tolerance, and not because we reject "niceness." Our challenge to
ideologies that defy such universal human rights is because we
support universal human rights as
being Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
We won't abandon women in Saudi Arabia or any other part of the world.
We won't abandon Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, other Muslims, and
other religious minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt,
Philippines, Thailand, Somalia, Israel, and the rest of the world. We
won't deny those who legitimately call for reform a place in promoting
human rights. We won't accept the
September 12 mentality of fear by so many who are willing to do
anything just to be have "security," "safety", or "protect our culture,"
no matter what happens to the rest of the world. Our fellow human
beings and our universal human rights are not expendable.
Our running days are over. We are NOT afraid.
Real courage allows us as individuals to challenge ideas against
freedom, not because of our fears, but because of courage and
responsibility. Real courage requires that we demand such universal
human rights not just for America, not just for Europe, but
fearlessly and
without question for the entire world.
But such courage starts by REJECTING fear. It starts by rejecting
acceptance of any type of
"phobia." Rejecting fear gives us the courage to be responsible for
human rights, human diversity, and human dignity.
Those who are courageous defenders of human rights
do not fear those who go
to pray, whether it is on the
Capitol lawn, whether it is
in front of the White House, or whether it is on the street in front of
us. We have more courage and more sense than to challenge those
exercising their American and universal human rights of freedom of
religion, whether we like it or not. Those who seek to defend human
dignity do not sit around
"brainstorming" creative ways to victimize others by seeking to find
"donkeys,"
so
that "Islamic prayer is nullified," and making asses of ourselves.
In America and around the world, there are supremacists who seek to do
real damage and harm to human beings' rights and lives every day. At
our
September 12 public awareness event at the Washington Monument, I
spoke about a
reported mob of 20,000 in Pakistan that
marched into the city of Gojra, burned down a church, 100 Christian
homes, and burned down women, children, and the elderly alive. In Egypt,
Christian Copts are routinely
oppressed,
hunted,
raped,
kidnapped, and
murdered for the "crime" of being Christian. In Pakistan,
Hindus flee the nation for religious supremacism, and in India they
have been the
target of vicious terrorist attacks as we saw in Mumbai. In
Thailand, Buddhists are regularly attacked by supremacists in the South
with a
death toll exceeding the 9/11 attacks. In the Philippines,
120,000 have died in the ongoing attacks in that nation. In Israel,
Jewish citizens and others have continued to be
victims of an endless series of attacks by supremacist
organizations, including those
whose charter embraces the apocryphal "Protocols of the Elders of
Zion"
promoted by Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.
The challenges we face today are literally life and death issues for our
fellow human beings around the world who are counting on our voice,
counting on our real courage today. Is the best that we can do to seek
to just protect our
"Western civilization"? Is the best that we can do to promote the
fear of "Islamophobia" as
"common sense"? Or can we rise to our generational challenge and have
the courage to consistently and unequivocally defend universal human
rights for all people, everywhere -- whose very lives are threatened
today?
As we have stated repeatedly, we have identified this supremacist threat
to human rights around the world. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
identified an identity-based
ideology of "white
supremacy," so we today have identified an ideology of "Islamic
supremacism," in all of its sects and permutations. Like Dr. King, we do
this because we believe in humanity and we believe in change, and we
recognize that there are historical moments when such calls for change
must be made. Dr. King did not call for a fear-based support of
"whiteophobia," and so we also reject those who call for a fear-based
support of "Islamophobia."
We do not attack "Islam" and Muslims; we challenge "Islamic supremacist"
ideologies and actions. Some believe that such a call to challenge
supremacism is hopeless and pointless. We reject such pessimism. Some
might have said it was pointless in a nation that once had
4 million members of the
terrorist group Ku Klux Klan to challenge white supremacism. That
nation, as you know, was the United States of America. But not only have
we continued to challenge white supremacism, America has a black
president today. We have come a long way through courage,
not through fear. We continue to fight against the
institutionalized hate of supremacism, but we did not give up on
humanity or on our fellow Americans.
So we must not give up on our fellow human beings in challenging Islamic
supremacism today, no matter how grim the picture is today, no matter
how daunting the odds may seem. We must not accept the idea that fear
can and will rule our lives and our choices. So many of our fellow human
beings are dependent on us choosing courage over fear.
It is our destiny to die as human beings. At some point in all of our
lives, we will all inevitably suffer to varying degrees. Recognizing
this is neither fatalistic nor craven, and I have spent years helping my
fellow human beings
to learn to
how protect themselves from harm.
But while we are here on our shared Earth, we live. While we are
here, we can choose how we live and what we live for. We don't
have to let supremacists terrorize us into living our
lives based on fear.
We can choose to be Responsible for Equality And Liberty.
We can choose to decide that we are NOT afraid.
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