Source/Credit: Orlando Sentinel | Op-Ed
By Faheem Younus | September 12, 2010
With increasing incidents of homegrown terrorism in America, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA has led a national campaign to educate its youth about the importance of loyalty to one's country as a tenet of Islam.
As I used the term "Muslimerican" to capture the essence of our message, a teenager startled me by asking, "Is peace an American value?"
I responded, "Of course."
"How many times is the word 'peace' mentioned in our Constitution?" he probed.
"How many times is the word 'democracy' mentioned in our Constitution?" I pushed back.
"That's true, but it seems like we are always fighting for our freedoms. And 'fighting' is not peace." He was in no mood to surrender.
I said, "Then how is it that American leaders have won 24 Nobel peace prizes over the years?" He changed the topic despite feeling skeptical.
Our conversation got me thinking: Is peace an American value?
As Americans, freedom is our most important value, and the heroic sacrifices of the victims of 9-11 are reminiscent of what it takes to protect freedom.
Estimates suggest we have lost more than 1 million American lives in combat since the Revolutionary War, with another 1.5 million wounded. For every American lost in the World Trade Center attacks, two more Americans have perished during our ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The casualties for those who threatened our freedoms are even more staggering. Between Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 200,000 Japanese civilians died. Vietnam: 3.1 million civilians and combatants died. Iraq: More than 100,000 civilians died. Afghanistan: More than 30,000 civilians died.
Yes, it is difficult to verify these statistics, but one thing is clear: They do not paint a picture of peace.
Having lived in New York during 2001 though, every 9-11 anniversary brings back deep personal feelings. This is when extremists hijacked my faith, attacked my people and expected my support for their heinous acts.
This is where numbers begin to have a face. The face of a firefighter trapped in the staircase, the face of a frantic mother posting her son's pictures, the face of a crying coworker. Then with every passing year after 9-11, more faces of pain pile up in my mind. The face of a 14-year-old Afghan girl killed in a crossfire, the face of an injured Iraqi child lying without medical help.
Why not seek a world where a blatant disregard of feelings is not a prelude for exercising our freedoms?
While teaching medical students, I remind them to ask patients about an area of tenderness so it could be examined with extra care. Showing concern for a patient's feelings does not take away the freedom of an examining clinician. Instead, it fosters trust.
I felt torn. Choosing between freedom and feelings was a win-lose. Then a national debate erupted around an imam who plans to build an Islamic center near ground zero and a pastor who declared he would commemorate 9-11 by burning copies of the Quran.
Despite constitutional America chanting freedom, cultural America drummed up feelings.
This unveiled a personal epiphany. "Freedom versus feelings" is a flawed paradigm. As Americans, we do expect our feelings to be accounted for when our fellow citizens practice their freedoms. Peace is not a value. It's a consequence of this calculated deference as we exercise our values.
While we are trying to promote freedom around the world, a bleeding, tumultuous world is actually longing for the same peace.
I shared Thomas Jefferson's words with my Muslimerican friend at the following meeting, "I love peace, and am anxious that we should give the world still another useful lesson, by showing to them other modes of punishing injuries than by war, which is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer."
His skepticism melted into a smile.
Faheem Younus is president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community youth organization and a clinical associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Read original post here: Why must we fight to achieve peace?
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