Conservative's Conscience

A Sliver of Hope

The Cold War with Russia began immediately after the close of World War Two, and it continued under presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter until, in the 1980s, it informally ended under President Reagan and it formally ended under President George H.W. Bush when in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. 

 The major American media has chosen to lionize Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party and leader of the USSR, as the man who democratized the Soviet Union.  For all practical purposes, however, it was President Reagan’s policies, military and diplomatic, that caused the Soviet Union to disintegrate.

 Also, the liberal media never gave proper credit to Reagan’s principal ally in the effort to civilize the Soviets, Pope John Paul II., a native of Poland, who was instrumental in planting the seeds of revolution in his homeland, which came to maturity in 1989 when, in effect, Soviet influence in that nation ended.

 Communism was (and is) first an idea that violently flowered into a form of government in atheistic Russia that could have over-run Europe.  Personal freedom (dignity) is also an idea, pne that that flowered in Christian Britain and found its greatest expression in Christian America.  This means the Cold War with the USSR, although fought with the used and unused weapons of mankind, was essentially a war of ideas, atheism vs. Christianity. 

 A similar war exists today: Radical Islam, which seeks to enslave nonbelievers under its narrow interpretation of Sharia (Muslim law) vs. Judeo/Christian nations that recognize freedom, nowhere better expressed than in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….”

 This war too must be fought and won with the tools of religion as well as the tools of war.  Because war will continue ad infinitum until Radical Islam and its notions of superiority is replaced by Moderate Islam, which continues in its uniqueness but, at the same time, accepts as an ethic the words of the Declaration. 

Can the Christian idea and the Muslim idea come together in peace and dignity?

There is reason to hope.  The road could be long.  It will again require the marriage of political and spiritual leaders to bring it about. 

 The possibility of success was importantly planted in 1980 when Aal al-Bayt Institute, a prestigious group of Islamic religious scholars, was founded in Jordan by King Hussein.  It was considerably enhanced when it sent the following message last October to the world’s most prominent Christian leaders, including Pope Benedict: “The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.”  And the Institute called for cooperation between these groups, an invitation that was signed by Islamic leaders from 25 countries. 

 Is the spiritual component of the solution to the deadly puzzle moving into place?

 The Institute has spent years forming a global agreement about three issues: (1) Who is a Muslim? (2) Can one Muslim label as apostates another Muslim group? (3) Who has the right to issue legal rulings (fatwas)?  The answers to these questions have been agreed to by more than 500 Islamic scholars (ulama) worldwide .  

This consensus of the ulama is legally binding on all Muslims and, according to the Institute, “It assures balanced Islamic solutions for essential issues like human rights, women’s rights, freedom of religion, legitimate jihad, good citizenship of Muslims in non-Muslim countries and just and democratic government.”

 Is the Institute the voice of moderate Islam that many have been waiting to hear?  Does it have in the Muslim world the spiritual clout of the Pope in the Christian world? 

 An invitation from such an influential body could be the invitation to peace that a leader like Ronald Reagan would be looking for.

 Is anybody looking?