While we were in Morocco I was very surprised to hear some people we met ask about former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They knew who Bush and Cheney were, of course, but the fact that they also knew who Rumsfeld was shocked us.
I wonder how many Americans today could identify him? Not many, I would guess. Yet he was the civilian head of our nation’s military during one of the biggest moral and strategic blunders our nation has ever made. He was in the news every day, especially when he held his numerous news conferences to promote and justify the war.
As we all know, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq did not go down well with Muslims around the world, including moderate, pro-western nations like Morocco.
What we may not know is that the invasion of both countries, especially Iraq, is to this day seen as a religious war against Islam.
Why?
Because Muslims believe what they hear and read in the news, just as we do, and what they heard and read about was that the United States is a Christian nation.
Many of us, maybe most of us, know that is not true, but most of the world’s Muslims don’t. They live in a world where there is little distinction between religion and culture, with governments that accommodate both. A religiously neutral government is a foreign concept to them.
This confusion was exacerbated by the fact that military and political leaders sanctioned biblical quotes being plastered on our American tanks when we invaded Iraq.
We may not have paid any attention to it when this happened, but Muslims did.
Republican political leaders who court the conservative Christian vote and/or espouse conservative Christian views themselves on controversial issues don’t help matters.
According to surveys many Americans fear radical Islamists. But here’s the rest of the story. Many Muslims fear radical Christians and their influence on our government.
One person we talked to in Morocco was surprised to find out we didn’t like Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld anymore than he did. But he was only one person. The rest of the Muslim world doesn’t know what the American people think. What they know about us is what gets in the news.
The trip to Morocco reminded me once again that it is easy to forget that other people don’t see Americans the way we see ourselves.
If we were to keep that in mind we might not be so quick to judge and misjudge them or see ourselves as always on the side of what is right.
That might be one small way we can contribute to peace.
