Of Freedom and Sacrilege
Ayatollahs, veils, Bibles, Korans, war and wardrobe malfunctions, and how it's all coming together
 

February 7 2005
Counterbias.com
by Brian Adler
 

We’ve heard a lot about freedom lately, and its opposite, oppression. This is not surprising. Our President, George W. Bush, is something of an expert on these two subjects. A tireless crusader for the rights of all, he believes it is the sacred mission of this great nation to spread its ideas of freedom and liberty throughout the world. Again and again, he repeats the stirring refrain. If only we stand together… we can… and we will… defeat tyranny and hatred – and terror – wherever they exist.

But before you become part of any campaign, you first must understand what or who it is you are trying to endorse. In this case, the candidate is “our freedom.” Our freedom is also called “our rights.” And our rights are not merely self-evident; they are “God-Given.” Freedom is a birthright. It is the inheritance of the woman from Iran, as it is the inheritance of the man from Texas. The property of each. The property of none. Devote yourself to liberty and you accept a sacred charge. Go out into the world. Fulfill your responsibility. Do whatever is needed. Follow any path. Freedom is the only road. But, it is the correct road. Freedom is truth, and truth is divine. The Lord is never wrong!

Well, God may never be wrong, but mortal men and mortal women? They are something else. Already, we are faced with a slight problem: George W. Bush is not the only human being who is doing God’s work. He has a great number of helpers. Millions and millions of them. They speak different languages. Call different lands home. And they have different names – names like Falwell and Graham; Bin Laden and Zarqawi; John Paul and the Dalai Lama. Their messages may be different, but their motivation is the same: They are all doing God’s work. Each and every one of these “helpers” has his or her own definition of the Lord’s work – of freedom.

Take the example of the sovereign nation of Iran. Its government is largely dominated by people called “ayatollahs.”  “Ayatollah,” of course, is not an English word, though it means something very close to our own word “priest,” or “bishop.” These ayatollahs – or priests or bishops – believe, just like our President, that God distributes only one brand of truth. No copyright infringements here. The ayatollahs’ brand of truth is called Islam. Like Christianity, and Judaism, and Buddhism, and a multitude of other faiths, this “Islam” is an expression of God’s infallible will. It is a revealed religion. A religion revealed in a book. A book that contains God’s own words. This book is called the Koran. And like George W. Bush’s favorite book, the Bible, the Koran is absolutely true. It must be. It has to be. It can only be. It is God’s Word.

In Iran – as in Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and lots of other “stans” (and plenty more places too) – the Koran serves as the immutable foundation for an entire system of living. It prescribes a whole way of life.  It teaches too, the strict separation of the sexes. These sexes are equal but distinct. Men and women must never mix together lest potentially dangerous temptations arise. Indeed, it is as a safeguard against precisely these temptations that Iran’s Ayatollahs believe women must wear veils. If a man can’t see the beauty of a woman’s face, how can he be tempted? Quite logical really. Probably it prevents many undesired situations such as rape, sexual molestation, and the wanton spread of sexually-transmitted diseases.

Another problem! While all this may be fine in some parts of the world, people in “Christian” countries (such as the one inhabited by George W. Bush) find this practice absolutely abhorrent. The “Christian” God – Mr. Bush’s God – cannot stand the idea of women wearing veils! Mr. Bush’s God wants men to be able to see the beautiful faces of the women with whom they share His creation. To force a fellow human being to cover up any part of her body is wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Well… except for maybe those parts that would be exposed during a “wardrobe malfunction.” (Note: These same parts are actually “open for viewing” in some other portions of the Globe, none of these being “Christian,” of course). Interestingly enough, however, it was only a few generations back that “wardrobe malfunctions” covered almost the entire human body – even in America!  And while you go for your oxygen tank, I’ll get back to our original point:

Freedom is Freedom, and Truth is Truth wherever they are found. A man or a woman who does God’s work is always right… except when he or she is wrong.

God alone knows who is free and true, and who is free with the truth. Our leaders said we were threatened, and so we threatened back. Our leaders feared for terror, and so terrorized us with fear. Our leaders said our enemy lied, and so we lied to our enemy. Did any nation ever have weapons of mass destruction? One nation certainly did, and it had no qualms about using them – thousands of irradiated Iraqis can attest to that. We served up freedom, nourished with bombs: Have no yellow cake, and still we’ll eat you. Words are better than weapons. Weapons no substitute for words. A little more talk. A little more time. And so we might have heard the real reason, instead of just the rhyme.

Still we couldn’t talk, could we? A little discussion and we might have learned a few “truths.” Like, why each of our countries was correct?  Why men and women in different places can believe that the “One True God” tells them two different stories? Why one people’s right is another’s wrong? And why one human being’s freedom is another’s tyranny?  

Sadly, the weapons of war do not bring truth, or freedom. Only silence. For only in the death-like silence of one side can the other side believe that its words and its beliefs are true. They must be. Who can contradict them?

If only the children of Mohammed had discovered gunpowder and the atom bomb – whose freedom then would be true? Another world, and another leader, and one nation (this time in the East) would be forcing our nation, the United States of America, to overthrow its rulers and mend its ways; that all Americans might enjoy the God-given right… to live as Allah intended! One soul’s freedom is another’s sacrilege.

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