Support4Change Blog

March 30, 2007

Category: Commentary on Contemporary Life

By Arlene Harder, MA, MFT
 

Have you ever heard of RadioIslam? Until yesterday I hadn’t. This program originates out of Chicago “with the goal of providing cyberspace a high quality, informative and creative Internet radio broadcast.” It is focused, through the Sound Vision Foundation, on teaching Muslims about their traditions and faith and helping non-Muslims learn more about the Muslim culture.

The reason I became interested in this website was an email I received yesterday inviting me to be interviewed this coming Monday about Erik Erikson’s developmental stages of life. The web page on which I discuss Erikson’s eight stages of growth is one of the most popular on Support4Change, thanks to Google. If you look for “Stages of Growth” (without the quotation marks) my article comes up first out of 36,700,000, which ain’t too bad. At least that’s what it was this morning. If you Google “Erik Erikson” (again without the quotes), I’m seventh out of 793,000. Also not bad, although these results direct you to my LearningPlaceOnline site, which has been active for perhaps five years and which I only keep open to direct traffic to Support4Change and ChildhoodAffirmations.

Anyway, I looked at the site and found it to be not only positive, but a vehicle that could promote my passion to bring greater understanding between people (and give me much-needed publicity). Nevertheless, I was both dismayed and surprised to find that my reaction to being interviewed on the site raised some puzzling thoughts that went something like this. I couldn’t know for sure whether someone who might contribute to the Sound Vision Foundation had, at one time, also contributed to a charity that had some very minor link to a group considered terrorist. Maybe the FBI has someone connected to the foundation under surveillance. Ridiculous, the think-positive-thoughts side of me said.

But then I remembered hearing of many cases in which perfectly innocent people have been put on the terrorism list because their middle name is the same as someone who is a verified terrorist, or who contributed to an organization that contributed to a terrorist cause. And it is almost impossible to get your name off the list. If you claim your name doesn’t belong on the list, you are treated as though your denial is proof you’re trying to hide something.

All of this had me wondering whether the government monitors RadioIslam to see who is being interviewed. Possibly, although I hope the FBI doesn’t spend time listening to every program that has any connection with the Muslim faith. In any case, would my name manage to land on a list somewhere? Not probable. Discussing the process by which we become mature through learning different lessons at different stages of life (Erik Erikson’s theory) has nothing to do with terrorism. So it’s not likely I would be noticed by the authorities. And even though it is possible, I refuse to give in to such worries.

What amazed me was the fact that I even considered the possibility.  Nevertheless, it is a sad reality that today there are some, both inside and outside our government, who are suspicious about all Muslims, even though these officials and citizens talk about freedom and privacy. But their actions often remind me of the McCarthy era when thousands were accused of being Communist although they were merely friends of someone who might have been a Communist at one time.

This doesn’t mean I don’t want us to look for potential terrorists. I do! But if we become so paranoid that it keeps us from making a genuine effort to get to know those with whom we disagree, the terrorists have already won. It is so easy to be afraid of what we don’t understand.

Recently a city council (or it may have been county, I don’t remember exactly) voted to support a Department of Peace resolution and had to rescind their vote because the citizens of that city, county, or wherever—who hadn’t even read the resolution—were afraid this would be a door through which the UN would invade America. It’s okay to start a war on trumped up charges, but it’s subversive if we catch you trying to start peace! How weird. How sad.

From what I read on the RadioIslam and Sound Vision Foundation websites, there is a lot I need to learn about Islam. As I mentioned when forming the Q-and-A Club, until we are willing to listen and learn from others, until we recognize we are far more alike than we might suspect from outward appearances, our world will continue to live on the edge of conflict—and in the middle of it as well.

That is why I hope I will be able to encourage the listeners of RadioIslam to join the Q-and-A Club. This “community of the curious and courageous” is aimed at people of all persuasions, whether Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, or some other belief.

End of my rant.

Yesterday I entered more of my daily thanks on Things for Which I Am Grateful. It’s hard to keep it up every day. Even when I add some thanks to that page, I forget to mention it in my blog. So you may want to bookmark the page if you want to be reminded of how many things there are for which we can be grateful.

Note: The pictures are from PBS.org and My Africa and will be removed when I get photos I have specific permission to use.