Seeking exclusion of a religion is unconstitutional in the USA.The experience of Anwar al Awlaki is about as close as it comes to outlawing a religion. He is a learning experience or should I say he should be a very important learning experience for the USA.
The New York Times did an extensive timeline regarding this man.
Type ‘‘Anwar al-Awlaki’’ (click here) into YouTube’s search bar, and you get 40,000 hits. Most of them bring up the earnest, smiling face and placid voice of the first American citizen to be hunted and killed without trial by his own government since the Civil War. Here is Awlaki on what makes a good marriage; on the nature of paradise; on Jesus Christ, considered a prophet by Muslims; on tolerance; on the holy month of Ramadan; and, more quirkily, on ‘‘obesity and overeating in Islam.’’ Here is Awlaki, or Sheikh Anwar, as his many admirers still call him, easily mixing Quranic Arabic with American English in chapters from his 53-CD series on the life of the Prophet Muhammad, once a best seller among English-speaking Muslims....
He was an American and had unrestrained hate not entered his life he might have been a great American Muslim leader. The hate that entered his life was not simply social where he could turn off his laptop and end the idiocy, it was formal and structured hate. It was 'in his face' hate.
A man this well educated and coming from a family that loved him and raised him to be loving is a sincere reason to reexamine all the issues surrounding his life and death and the death of his son. And we have. Those who saw that small glimmer of 'what the heck happened here' has asked all the right questions and have come to all the right conclusions.
When South Carolina voters want to eliminate an entire religion from the borders of the USA, it is not a joke; it is an extension of exactly what happened with Anwar al Awlaki.
He became a very profound danger to the USA. He was an American exposed to incredible hate and pressure and he decided he was no longer a citizen of this country because he could not resolve the difference between his faith and his treatment in his country of birth.
He left the USA and without a second thought began to council other American Muslims online. He turned his estrangement by his homeland into a reason to end the power of the USA. He no different than any of the others that have sought to bring down the 'great power' of the USA failed. It cost him his life and that of his son, however, he had no understanding his son would meet the same fate.
His actions in counseling other Muslim Americans is what haunts me more than anything else about his life. He is a martyr today. He is esteemed today. He is still with us today. And his identity and the fact he was a holy man carries a great deal of brevity in the world of terrorists. Americans should realize their ambivalence of the American Muslim community and it's love of this country and respect for diversity is inappropriate. The ambivalence is completely in inappropriate. They are no different than any other American.
The faith is an Abrahamic faith and holds respect for life and love of peace at the center of it's teachings. Unfortunately, there are criminals in the world that are Muslim and turn to some of the TEXT of the holy book as an exclusive invitation to kill innocent people.
We have witnessed the cruelty of these international terrorists and their demand for civilized infrastructure to address the violence and chaos they cause within our lives. The lives of innocent individual people.
It is completely wrong to politicize a religion and allow that level of demand of control to exist in the USA dialogue. That dialogue will provide a platform as a legitimate statement of American priorities.
Fear is a terrible thing. It exists all too often in the USA. It is palpable among some people and it is legitimate when they reference events that have been attributed to international criminals. They can't understand how a text of a holy book can carry such brevity of violence. When engaged I remind them the Crusades of the middle ages were conducted from text of a holy book.
Anwar al Awlaki is not a sinner or a saint. He is however an example of America at it's worst. We all need to remember that when we provide any reference of a hostile dialogue. Any dialogue should not contain violence and end the hate. We need to resolve fear and not deal with the hate. That is what was at the heart of the terrible treatment in the USA of Anwar al Awlaki and could easily happen again.
When people openly state there should be an end of a religion in the USA there is fear at the heart of those statements. It is the fear that needs dialogue and a platform, not the expression of hate itself.
