We Are All Muslims Now

WASHINGTON -- A few hours after the Paris terror attacks, I wrote a piece for HuffPost with the headline, "We Are All Parisians, Again." It elicited a lot of comment.

A week later I'm back with another post-Paris piece. You can see the headline above: "We Are All Muslims Now."

The world's first reaction to the Paris shootings was horror, sorrow and defiance. In the days after, attention shifted to the military and police response. 

I'd like to suggest something else: understanding and connection. If there is to be peace on the planet, we all must try to understand what Islam means and what it doesn't, what it is and isn't, what is holy in its name and what is evil.

I don't mean that all people, of whatever faith, must become experts in one of the world's most practiced religions. And I'm certainly not the person to give instruction in any faith.

But ignorance allows fear to grow. In the absence of knowledge of the Quran's message of peace, acceptance, community and charity, fear fills the void in politics and elsewhere. If self-described Islamic State militants kill time and again in the name of Islam -- if they declare a "caliphate" in the ancient tradition -- it takes a sense of history and proportion to know that they're lying.

We can't abdicate the responsibility for this education to the politicians.

President Barack Obama, unfortunately, is not the perfect messenger for this project. Too many yahoos in the American electorate think that he is a "secret Muslim."

Advocacy groups based in Washington and elsewhere aren't necessarily the right vehicle, either. They can't be faulted for spending so much time cataloging the growing list of discrimination against and attacks on American Muslims. But the broader, more positive mission gets lost sometimes, as does the need and the patience to keep fiercely and repeatedly denouncing those perpetrating the violence.

A smart and gregarious politician such as Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota can do his part, but as energetic as he is, he is nearly alone in official Washington as part of the conversation.

In the absence of countervailing arguments, presidential candidates such as Jeb Bush and Donald Trump can plumb the depths of religious fright, suggesting, in Bush's case, that only Syrian refugees who are Christians should be admitted to the U.S.

Journalists at HuffPost and the rest of the media, of course, must do our part.

But ultimately it lies with all thinking people to look past their fears and learn about the Muslim community -- both at home and abroad. To recognize and join with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the blood-curdling actions of the extremist group also known as Daesh. And to tell their fellow Americans that the values we hold dear not only require but will reward the embrace of our common humanity.

I'll leave you with a story from long ago, when I was a young man just out of college traveling the world on a fellowship.

In Jerusalem I met a burly man in his 50s, with a square jaw, a knit cap on his head and a carpeted wooden frame on his back -- a contraption that made it easier to carry chests and other heavy items.

As late as the 1970s in Jerusalem, or so I was told, there were other men like him: Turkish "furniture movers," descendants of the Ottoman Empire that once ruled Palestine, who made a living transporting items from place to place in the narrow streets of the Old City.

It was a sunny spring day in 1971 when I met him. I was leaning against one of the old Ottoman walls of the city. I was alone and must have looked hungry.

He approached without saying a word. He reached into his pocket and brought out a small paper bag. Inside was a hard-boiled egg and a piece of newsprint folded over many times. Inside the latter was a small pile of salt.

He handed the small package to me. I nodded in thanks. He nodded and moved away.

Then he took a small carpet from his backpack, unfurled it on the grass, kneeled on it and prayed in the direction of Mecca.

I could think of the gunmen in Paris, or I could think of him. I now choose the latter.