Muslims and Pagans

Dear Readers,

It is hard to believe that it has been more than a year since I set virtual pen to virtual paper on this blog.  Life has just been too busy and exhausting, and the gruesome reality show that is the Trump presidency has so alarmed, aggravated and depressed me that at times I have not been sure what to talk about here, as there is such a constant cavalcade of erratic and destructive actions and ignorant and hateful rhetoric exploding from the House of Tweet that I find myself at times too overwhelmed to respond. Add to that the rising tide of Trumpian right-wing nationalist politicians and parties around the world from India to Hungary to Britain to Brazil and the dispiriting effect is only magnified  a hundredfold, and I fall into anguished silence contemplating how the world that I once knew, in which Fascism had been vanquished in a World War and there was a general understanding that Nazism was an evil thing, seems to be falling apart and past hatreds and cruelties rising up again, with delighted mobs deliriously cheering blood-lust.

What brings me to write today is the very sad realization that someone who I have worked with for a long time in the academic world, someone I have respected for his work in Pagan Studies and thought I knew, someone who I considered a kindred spirit, seems to have been fully converted to the hateful outlook of the new global right wing. I noticed him making very characteristically far-right  Islamophobic statements on a blog that he writes, seizing on the extreme rhetoric of one particularly aggressive and offensive Muslim cleric and seeming to trumpet this as proof of the overall vileness of Islam, the religion of some 1.3 billion human beings on this earth. I contacted my friend and pointed out that it is neither accurate nor intellectually honest nor morally defensible to lambaste all the members of a group or religion for the actions or statements of a single person or small minority within that group. He backed off a little bit, but only a little, acknowledging that not all Muslims were bad people but adding that overall, he still finds Islam a malevolent force in the world. He observed that while some academics and intellectuals might feel it important to respect Islam out of their dedication to religious tolerance, this  was, in his opinion, a misguided "ivory  tower" view that overlooked the true reality of the world in which Islam was a  threat to the tolerant lifestyle of Western societies, a threat that had to be defended against.

Having spent some serious time in the last several years researching right-wing nationalism and extremism, particularly anti-Muslimism, also known as Islamophobia, its close relation, anti-Gypsyism, and their older sibling anti-Semitism, I was very sad to see how almost every word my friend had to say about Islam was right out of the hackneyed, hateful hymn book of the modern  far right. Islam as threat to the west has been the mother's milk trope of right-wing Islamophobia for decades, going into overdrive after the 9/11 attacks and asserted with renewed vitality after the horrific Charlie Hebdo incident in France. This is not to say that the homicidal brutality of Muslim persons in those incidents was justified or forgivable. Those responsible should be prosecuted and punished for such crimes. However,  the vast majority of Muslims worldwide who live peaceful lives of daily toil and experience the same range of human triumphs and travails as others, should not be blamed or vilified, demonized or disadvantaged due to the actions of a few within their community. To do that is to begin following the old playbook of racial and religious prejudice that cherry-picks the most unpleasant and offensive behaviors, beliefs or customs to be found among the members of any group, whether defined in ethnic, religious, or other terms,  holds this up as the essence of the group, and proclaims the need to suppress, segregate, deport or exterminate said group. That way lies Pogroms and Final Solutions.

We all have our quirks and shortcomings, and I wish I could just write off my friend's anti-Muslim bias as a quirk of his personality, something I could simply agree to disagree with him about and then put behind us. The problem is, I am bound to this person in an academic enterprise in the field of Religious Studies. Though my friend's particular expertise and interest is in regards to modern Paganism, it is axiomatic in modern Religious Studies to accept the basic validity of all religions on their own terms,  practicing religious tolerance and respect for diversity. I now have reason to believe that my friend has either never really believed in religious tolerance and diversity, or has turned a corner in his mind where in the case of Islam, the principles of tolerance and diversity do not apply.

I find his stance not only offensive to my own sense of ethics and my own commitment to respecting religious diversity, but extremely puzzling and ironic in someone who is a long-time supporter of modern Paganism. It is the principles of religious tolerance and respect for diversity that have made it possible for Pagans to practice their religion in many countries today without fear of persecution or violence. If we start saying that Islam is not to be tolerated because of certain behaviors or beliefs of a small minority of its members, do we not begin to dismantle the structures that uphold the edifices of tolerance and diversity that we Pagans shelter under? Does that not lay the groundwork for persecution of minority religions  including forms of Paganism such as Wicca, Druidism and Heathenry, that many Christians find offensive and Satanic?

I would welcome comments from readers about their own viewpoints on Pagans and Muslims. Do you agree with me that  upholding respect for all religions is the best protection for minority religions like Paganism, or do you feel like my friend that in America and other Western societies, Islam cannot be tolerated and Muslims are not welcome? Do you think we should "Build the Wall" against Islam? Or should we be looking to build bridges and find common ground? I will be curious to hear your voices.