[Politics] The Fundamentalist Wars

Radical fundamentalism.

Like a moderately radioactive material, this ideology has mutated the things around it so rapidly and so subtly that while we can already see some effects, we will be feeling this scourge for generations to come. Hatred and dissonance grown like cancerous cells are cropping up in pockets across the world. These growths, as useless and insidious as tumors, are frequently lethal, and often strike in misunderstood and unnoticed ways. Often times we attempt to stem the tide of this debilitating movement as though it were the cancer, treating it topically, medicating it with reform, or alternately the scalpel or barage of our military for that which we call malignant. But fundamentalism is not the cancer, it is the cause, and while we treat the cancer caused, we must also seek to isolate the carcinogen. Hatred will spring eternal from this source and the discord it brings will never die, so long as we fail to recognize the source.

Most readers will rightly assume that I speak of Islamic radical fundamentalism. It has proven to be a wildly deadly force, mutating the often placid middle-road person to a state of militant opposition. The tragic losses as a result of this carcinogen are abundant, and easily sighted. Perhaps too frequently we remember September 11th, The USS Cole, the Embassy bombings, The London Underground, The Madrid Bombings. Americans have grown resentful and furious at this constant barage of life changing events. The cancer of hatred has spread. The identical cells of this cancer have grown in the lymphatic system of our country, and our immunue system is choked up with fury. Our systems are shocked, and the remaining functional bits scurry around trying to survive while the whole of the American body lies prone and wracked with pain. We know this reactionary cancer exists, but we remain powerless to stop its growth, instead focusing on our other ailments, and trying to conduct business as usual. Like a uniquely relapsing remitting case of lymphoma, we struggle to survive in the face of this carcinogenic force.

And yet to treat this radicalized cancer, we have resorted to a Fundamentalism of our own. West against East, Non-muslim against muslim, Amercian-Israeli-British (et al.) against Arab, we have drawn lines in foreign sands. Mobilizing for war against these fundamentalists, we have become zealous and hardened into our philosophy. But while we seek to destroy this threat with our new American fundamentalist movement, irradiating these cells as a doctor would, in a cancer patient, what mutations are we spawning? When a doctor treats a patient with controled radiation, he invariably runs the risk of inadvertantly creating new cancers. Shock and Awe, Occupation, Abu Ghraib, Faluja, what radioactive remnants will we leave behind in this region we are seeking to treat? And should we scourge every last foreign mutant cell that this movement has created, what wreckage will we leave behind to poison the future?

It is not enough to say that we will fight the effects of fundamentalism, we must do so without becoming fundamentalists ourselves. Islamic fundamentalism has altered the American body, poisoning our political and social landscape. American reactionary fundamentalism has attacked and leaves behind an unseen cancerous growth in a foreign land. But in our own regions, an auto-immune response has begun, and we are tearing ourselves apart. Radical evangelism, Fundamentalist Islamism, Zealoutous and separatist Zionists. I believe when historians review our era, the chapter will be titled The Fundamentalist Wars, and the questions will be asked over and again, 'Where was the tempering voice of compassion?', 'How did so much misunderstanding go unadressed?'.

Let us hope, however, that the following chapter is written in the words of reconciliation, not new heights of isolation. Let us hope that this period ends with renewed compassion, not words of vile rancor. Let us hope that the Christian loves his neighbor, the Jew embraces his brother, and the Muslim remembers a legacy of monumental plurality. Vital organs of the world are suffering the cancers wrought from exposure to these Fundamentalist Wars. We are past the early stages, and tumors have sprouted the world over. We must hope that the world-body handles this ailment better than the human-body, or else we must develop, quickly, a treatment yet undiscovered.