Patrick Butler: Another Look

Having one's character or motivations come into question hurts. At the same time, being misunderstood seems to bloom like buds on a bush during a beautiful spring. No matter how carefully one tries to avoid misunderstandings, they happen.

So here's what the scenario looks like in syllogism form; "Being misunderstood hurts. Being misunderstood is inevitable. Therefore, at some point, you will hurt."

Everyone seems to have experienced this triad.

So the real question is "how will you handle hurt when it comes?" Religion everywhere addresses this very question. What does yours say?

Society depends on the response. Walk around constantly offended and reap the consequences of a tense, polarized and suspicious society, workplace or home. Walk in the trust of a merciful God and reap the results of a selfless society more sensitive to trusting God than people's perceptions. It's a simple choice, really, but not an easy one to practice.

Learning this lesson is like being rubbed with rough sandpaper. Like being polished in a rock tumbler, turning over and again hitting other rocks and bouncing off. Like the grain of irritating sand in the oyster producing the pearl.

Frankly, I've been in the rock polisher for years. I don't know if I'll ever get out the tumbler. But that's life with God.

Misunderstanding happens to the best people, even in religion, perhaps because of it. Let's take another look for a moment at some writing I did about Muslims recently.

I've known many Muslims. I've met them in Amsterdam, Africa and Los Angeles. I've investigated their beliefs in Bali, Istanbul and Bombay. I've never had a problem. Ever.

But in many places to be a Muslim is to be under suspicion. The syllogism non-Muslims seem to operate from is "All Muslims react to hurt with violence. Hurt is inevitable. Therefore, all Muslims are violent."

But do all Muslims react to misunderstandings with violence?

During an open house question-and-answer period I covered a couple of years ago at the Tyler Mosque, a man stumbled badly over his question to the panel up front.

"Is this Mosque, um, have you ever, um, do support ..." he stuttered.

"Are we al Qaida?" asked mosque President Anwar Khalifa and the 100-plus visitors burst out in laughter. The questioner also laughed, nodding, holding his hand out to Khalifa in a "that's it" gesture.

For those wondering, Khalifa has often said when 9/11 terrorists hijacked planes in the name of Islam, they "hijacked more than airplanes, they hijacked an entire religion."

The Tyler Paper has featured the East Texas Mosque often. I've never met any Muslim who supported terrorists. But in America there are people who suspect Muslims simply because they're Muslims.

This is wrong. It was wrong, the U.S. Congress recently stated, when many Americans suspected all Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor. And it's wrong to suspect all Muslim-Americans after 9-11, plain and simple. I've said this repeatedly.

So it was with genuine astonishment I received a voice mail that framed my Feb. 2 interview with former Taliban prisoner Heather Mercer as "over the top" and "a very negative story about Muslims." It was "overblown" and a real "setback to interfaith relations."

The woman did not leave her name, number or identify her religion, if any.

These comments came in spite of Ms. Mercer's supportive, insightful and challenging comments to Christians about Muslims.

The story quoted Ms. Mercer saying Muslims are disarming, were loyal and committed friends to her, were very hospitable, family-oriented, wanted to please God and "are just like us." The story quoted her saying there was still "ignorance in America" about Muslims and she clearly made a distinction between Muslims and terrorists who ascribe to a "global ideology of Islam" through violence - just what Tyler Muslims have been saying all along. Few could have more authority to make that distinction to America's Christian majority than Heather Mercer.

No one from the Tyler Mosque called to question the article. Rereading the article, I wondered how Ms. Mercer's comments could be construed as "negative" toward Muslims, and how many more could think that? To me, it was exactly the opposite. But I wrote the story and it was my work. It's frankly frustrating when it won't accomplish what I think I am writing.

I'm fairly certain everyone knows this type of frustration firsthand. It's been one of those "you're dirt if you do, and dirt if you don't" kind of times for me lately. Everyone knows what that's like as well. The old rock tumbler has been turning steadily, grinding away.

What's happened in your life lately? When reputation, character, motivation and ability are called into question, then what? God knows the whole story and has a way to eventually, somehow, let that story become clear.

Meanwhile, it's the rock tumbler.

Patrick Butler
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