A Different Hope
I was saddened to read Sam Harris's comments about the significant percentage of the prison population in France who are Muslims (Letter, 43–44), inferring that Western Europe wouldn't have a crime problem if not for its Muslim (or other religious) residents. As Scott Atran notes, “The obvious inference …is that Islam encourages criminal behavior.”Atran goes on to say, “What is not reported is that Muslims in the U.S. are as underrepresented in prison populations, as are U.S. Jews, and that the predictive factors for Muslims entering European prisons are almost exactly the same for African-Americans entering U.S. prisons, namely, lack of employment, schooling, political representation, and so forth. Moreover, religious education is a negative predictor of Muslims entering European prisons.”40 Sam Harris betrays a rather amazing prejudice. How he has gotten away with making slanderous statements in his book—accusing Muslim communities of “misogyny, their anti-Semitism, …forced marriages, honor killings, punitive gang rapes, and a homicidal loathing of homosexuals”—boggles the mind (see Letter, 84). If he had said the same things about African-Americans, he would have found no publisher or institution willing to employ him. Using his same argument, he may as well say that the problem in the world is males—if we could just eliminate all males under twenty-five, we would have a better world. Has Harris seen the tinderbox of angst among these youth in France? Theirs is a breeding ground for crime and rioting. Shame on him for his callous statements and for the pathetic misrepresentations he employs in his hostility to a people and their beliefs! I am not a Muslim, nor am I sympathetic to many Islamic doctrines. But I do understand the anger that builds up among youths in Pakistan and France and other places. Their rebellion, often a cry for a decency and respect they are rarely shown, has too often been exploited by murderous, hate-filled men. Sadly, writers like Harris add fuel to that fire of prejudice.
Over the years I have been privileged to be the guest of Muslim universities and countries. They recognize that my beliefs are different from theirs, but they appreciate the respect with which I address their audiences. The disrespectful way in which Harris has addressed Muslims makes me wonder whether, if he were to make these same statements publicly in a Muslim country, he would leave unscathed. His prejudice is recognizable a mile away, and the mutual antipathy is literally a dead end. Why has Harris gone this route? Is he not qualified to address the issues between us apart from the method of calling for the eradication of belief? Or is it possible that he is trying to use the value of shock to propagate his views? Can he not see that his method is no different from some of the methods he is criticizing? May I suggest that Muslim radicals are employing the same rancor Harris does because they have been taught that this present world is the arena in which to settle all scores.
And this approach stands in stark contrast to the teaching of Jesus, who spoke of a hope that did not need to be hidden or relinquished. He spoke of a hope that respected the body and the soul. He spoke of hope based in a relationship with God. That which atheists find grotesque because of their pseudo-intellectualism, Jesus spoke of with great clarity. He spoke kindly yet directly to the woman at the well with five broken marriages and did not rail on her as if she were a renegade. The woman restored to health after having seven demons cast out of her by Jesus would be embarrassed by the shamelessness of Hollywood and what they have made of her commitment to Jesus. Whether by means of The Last Temptation of Christ or The DaVinci Code, somehow this Mary Magdalene is dragged into the private life of the skeptic's imagination. Those in the entertainment industry who worship sex haven't the faintest understanding of the tenderness and affection Jesus had for women who were so marginalized in their time. They cannot even recognize Jesus' touch of purity. Given a starting point of primordial slime, one is forced to live apart from a moral law, with no meaning, no real understanding of love, and no hope.
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