The "Other"

Yesterday, during Meeting for Worship (the term we Quakers use for church), a friend displayed a picture he had taken recently of a monument at the Manzanar National Historic Site in California. A remote and somewhat desolate place, Manzanar was one of several locations used during World War II to imprison American citizens of Japanese descent. 110,000 Japanese-Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in such "internment camps."

Typically, monuments serve to remind us of the heights to which we as a people can reach. This monument serves as a reminder of the depths to which we as a people can sink. We look back now at how we treated Japanese-Americans and we recognize that it was wrong. In the passion of war fever after Pearl Harbor we, as a nation, committed an injustice.

Likewise, in the late 1940's, another injustice was committed when, in the throes of Cold-War hysteria, the House Committee on Un-American Activities caused the blacklisting of over 300 actors, directors, screenwriters and other artists suspected of having Communist sympathies--in some cases bringing about their personal and financial ruin. We look back now and see that what was done by the Committee was wrong.

Today, there is a danger of a similar injustice being perpetrated. Some Americans are trying to prevent others from freely exercising their religion. The reason is that the religion in question is Islam and the location in question is Lower Manhattan, a couple of blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center. If it were a Christian church or a Jewish Synagogue...no problem. If it were a Buddhist or Hindu or Sikh temple...fine. But since it is a Muslim community center (which includes a mosque) many Americans are vigorously trying to block it.

Those seeking to prevent Cordoba House (the Islamic center) from being built do not seem to realize that what they are asking for is the suspension of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That would be a thoroughly un-American thing to do.

In all three of the examples of injustice listed above, the root cause is fear. Fear of the "other." And the more "otherly" the other, the more they are feared. We imprisoned Japanese-Americans on a massive scale, but not German-Americans. Why? Because German-Americans looked like us ("us" meaning, those who were in power at the time). Japanese-Americans looked different. They had different sounding names. They came from a very different culture. They were easy to single out. Likewise, Communists were portrayed as evil, inhuman "others." And now, in the wake of 9/11, it is Muslims who are vilified and feared as the "other."

Politicians and pundits have always been quick to capitalize on such fear. History has shown that people will willingly surrender their rights in exchange for security. But first people must be given something to fear. There is always a suitable "other" to serve that purpose.

If you are one of those who supports having the "ground zero mosque" (as it has hyperbolically become known) prevented from being built, please stop a moment and consider these words spoken by the German pastor Martin Niemöller in 1946:

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."