As LUC Interfaith Companions, we’re blessed to have such a diverse collection of faith traditions, experiences, and perspectives within our own team. This is a reflection one Companion wrote regarding her take on the importance of promoting peaceful dialogue at home in light of current unrest in Israel and Palestine.
A few months ago, a teenager who attended the same mosque I did back home was arrested on charges of terrorism. Our community was rocked by the arrest. The boy’s parents were distraught. Our community imam and alumni of the Islamic school the teenager attended lamented how the actions of a few misguided individuals continue to undermine the best intentions of the rest of Muslims in America. But what really disheartened me were the responses of the boy’s peers. They’d shake their heads and say, ‘Stupid kid had it coming’. He was always ‘Jew-bashing’ and ‘making bomb jokes’ despite all their warnings, and now it was too late. His wanton words had landed him in a world of trouble, and this is what scares me the most.
Vocalizing anger at injustice is understandable, but vocalizing hate for other religions/countries/races will never be, nor should it be tolerated. I’ve grown up listening to hotheaded kids saying stupid things; in fact I’ve been one of them. Back then, our anger made so much sense, but now that I’m older I see that we never realized just how fine the line between anger and hate is. In light of the current unrest in Palestine and Israel, many of us are emotionally invested in the issue, to say the least. The nature and degree of our feelings differ, but how we communicate these feelings to others is what can mean the difference between initiating beneficial dialogue and being labeled a bigot.
It has never been wrong to be passionate, but we must learn to temper that passion for the sake of our community. For if we truly mean it when we say that all we desire is peace, we need to realize the weight of our words and use them with peace. Because a solution is never reached through hatred; rather, we get the best results when we engage in civil dialogue with each other, with the intent to learn and the willingness to compromise. Until we learn that words can hurt just as much as (if not more than) sticks and stones, we will never reach that solution.
So please. Speak with peace.
