A Myopic View of Hate

Exclusive to STR

October 12, 2007

A group calling itself Americans Against Hate are planning a protest this weekend At Six Flags over Texas in Arlington. The target of their demonstration is the Islamic Circle of North America, which is sponsoring Muslim Family Day at the popular theme park. AAH's claim is that the ICNA is a supporter and financier of terrorism.

The chairman of Americans Against Hate is Joe Kaufman, a columnist for Front Page Magazine. Mr. Kaufman is upset that the Dallas-area media (as well as the FBI and pro-Jewish Anti-Defamation League) does not publish and take seriously their evidence proving ICNA's ties with 'terrorism.'

Viewing the list of previous articles written by Mr. Kaufman at FrontPageMag.com, it is easy to notice that the only group he deems guilty of hate in the world today is Muslims. Americans Against Hate claims to 'unequivocally support our government's war on terrorism.' It also appears the organization wraps itself in the American red, white and blue banner of moral superiority when warning of 'the violent hatred that was growing within undemocratic nations.' I can't help but think of the words of Matthew 7:4,5: 'How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.'

The lengthy rap sheet of the United States Government (ruling a supposedly democratic nation) has filled history books with crimes committed against individuals, groups, races, tribes and nations that dared disagreed with and fought against its imperialistic adventures--overseas and on its own territory. This criminal activity continues today in the form of 'shock and awe,' aggressive preemptive war, military occupation, use of mercenary armies, economic sanctions, trade embargoes, torture, rendition, toleration of massive civilian casualties, intervention in others nation's affairs, kidnappings, assassinations, etc. All these crimes are well documented. All these crimes have been committed under the guise of a government committed to the preservation of individual liberty and human rights. With these facts in hand, it appears that Americans Against Hate has aligned itself with the world's leading agent of moral hypocrisy, masquerading as a liberator.

How can any organization that claims abhorrence of hate share allegiance with the American state, or any other state for that matter? The state creates and promotes hostility. Politics, that dirty process that gives legitimacy to state power, involves creating enmity and divisions among people. Michael Rozeff writes, 'politics nurtures the growth of power and competition for that power.' That competition cannot successfully occur unless one group is marginalized to make it unacceptable to the mainstream. This process, when done to the extreme, generates antagonism. A more 'hateful activity' I cannot imagine.

Any group that aims to stamp out evil (hate being an element of such) cannot have any chance of success without considering the reason(s) that a particular evil exists and the mechanisms that encouraged and fed it. This would involve taking a close look at the U.S. Government's foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. This would involve understanding the phenomenon of revengeful blowback. This would involve meditating on such ancient truths as 'those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it (Job 4:8)' and 'for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal 6:7)."

The final requirement for understanding is a capacity for empathy. It is much easier to hate than to understand and empathize. Empathy requires self-reflection, which is difficult for so many Americans who seem to be doubly afflicted with both historical ignorance and aggressive arrogance. The state promotes these conditions through an indoctrinating education system, information control, and media propaganda.

While Americans Against Hate decries the free world ignoring 'the violent hatred that was growing within undemocratic nations,' it appears to be oblivious to the planted seeds of hostility growing, flourishing and spreading from its own back yard. Americans Against Hate claims to 'speak out against hatred even when it is politically incorrect to do so.' However, while working to expose and bring to justice perceived agents of hatred, bigotry and violence, it is guilty of selective prosecution. Out of loyalty or ignorance it condones and/or refuses to admit the failings of its political orthodoxy.

If Americans Against Hate truly seeks to live up to its name and work for a day 'when the world's inhabitants can truly live in peace with one another,' they first need to pay attention to the company they keep. Their perceived exposure of hate in others, while being blind to their own hypocrisy, will merely produce more of the same.