Why I Wrote ‘Charity vs. Dhimmitude’

To reiterate: I’m not particularly adamant about defending the bishops’ dubious idea. I can think of several reasons it is an imprudent move. The problem is that most people are not really focusing on those reasons. Instead, they are making impassioned — and bad — arguments that are rooted in theological and moral rationales that have already led to disaster in the Church’s past. The point of my article was not so much to defend the bishops’ suggestion as to keep reaction against that suggestion from devolving into nonsense. Because, like clockwork, devolve it has.

Here’s an especially devolved quote from the comments on the article that summarizes the craziness of the thinking I oppose. It is one of several attempts by various readers to declare that the Church is in error when she teaches of Muslims (and Jews) that "together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day":

Ah! But Islam also has a lot of very distorted moral teaching. Yep! Sure does! And there is a huge and growing threat of radical Islamic violence that I in no way deny. I think it’s ridiculous when the media re-brands rioting Muslim thugs as "youths." I think it contemptible when the New York Times sanitizes the radical Islamist butchers of Mumbai as generic "extremists." I’m acutely aware of the fact that Islamic holy texts themselves provide the basis for the thousands and thousands of acts of violence we have seen from the Islamosphere. I regard Islam as a manmade aggregation of some ideas ripped off from Judaism and Christianity and then reworked by a seventh century literary and military genius who may or may not have been influenced by demons, but who did a spectacular job of perverting real revelation.

So please: All you folk who have been writing to inform me that Islam is a menace can desist. I’m really aware of that. I haven’t been living in a cave since September 10, 2001.

Now, it would merely be a theological curiosity if Christians just vented stuff like this and went to bed. However, my concern is that, historically, the whole "there’s the one merciful God we worship, and then there’s the other one merciful God they worship" thing has quickly meant (in the case of the Jews) things like, "Jews don’t worship God at all! They are an alien and subversive element in our culture! They murder Christian children and make matzoh out of their blood!"

Which brings us to the biggest and most dangerous part of the hysterical reaction to the UK bishops’ dubious idea. In the course of my discussion with readers, what kept coming up was the attempt to say that the theological rationales being put forward for regarding all Muslims as the Enemy Within would not, surely, logically justify treating Jews exactly the same way.

If non-Trinitarian monotheists called Muslims don’t worship God, then neither do non-Trinitarians called Jews. If we try to claim that we should never allow Muslims to pray on Church property because they are not Christian, then Pope Pius XII should never have allowed Jews to celebrate their rites when he was hiding them in the Vatican and in other church properties. No hijab for Muslim kids, but strict adherence to Catholic dress codes? Very well then, no yarmulkes for Jewish kids at Catholic schools. No five minutes set aside for Muslims to say their prayers? Great! Then no time off allowed for High Holy Days for Jewish kids.

You seem to be suggesting that Catholics only need respect the dignity of humans if they are refugees. That makes no sense.

This is but one reason I am so grateful for Vatican II. And it is why I am so alarmed by the reckless language being trotted out to condemn acts of charity to Muslims. The acts of charity may or may not be prudent. But when we start to argue against them using the same premises and logic that once supported Christian persecution of Jews, it opens the door to all sorts of evils. So, for example, I can think of several good reasons not to give Muslim kids a room for prayer and facilities for ritual ablutions in a Catholic school without ever having to say:

Now, as I say, there are several reasons I can think of why the bishops’ suggestions are imprudent and inadvisable. But a general hubbub of shouts like "Ignore Nostra Aetate!" or reckless charges of "craven cowardice" or "surrender to the Enemy" or leaping to the hysteria of saying that accommodating British schoolkids is like accommodating Adolf Hitler is nowhere within a thousand miles of a serious argument.

Which is why I wrote the piece. My issue is not with defending the bishops’ prudentially dubious suggestion. It’s with rebutting the many bad and dangerous arguments being presented against their suggestion, because they compromise the integrity of the Faith and because they endanger our relationship with all non-Catholic religions, not just with Islam. Similarly, my point is not to argue that Islam is not a huge danger, not a manmade religion, and not arguably humanity’s greatest mistake. Nor is it to say that there is no difference between Trinitarian monotheism and the monotheism of Jews and Muslims.

It is to say that it’s not smart to fight Islam by laying the intellectual groundwork for contempt for all non-Catholics, and most especially for Jews. I recognize no commonality of spirit between the hysteria and frequent contempt for Nostra Aetate, Vatican II, Muslims and Jews that I’m seeing in a lot of the combox commentariat and the generous, thoughtful, and fruitful work being done by Pope Benedict XVI in his dialogue with Muslim leaders. It would well behoove Catholics who are serious about the Church’s engagement with Muslims of good will to imitate him, rather than to simply issue sweeping denials that there is any such thing as a Muslim of good will or to heap scorn on Nostra Aetate. The pope is there to teach us. Let’s learn from him.