Building Higher Walls

Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus at Princeton, regarded as the preeminent authority on Muslim History writes a very compelling argument in the Wall Street Journal that August 22, 2006 may be a very important date in world history.

News reports regarding the recently foiled UK terrorism plot involving hijacked airliners destined for the US, state that those arrested were giving the plan a “dry run” so to speak and that the real thing was to actually go down on August 22 and would have involved 22 airliners.

Doomsday scenarios have been around as long as history itself and yet, the planet still revolves and life goes on. Apocalyptic theories embraced by the world’s religions pit believers against non-believers and separate us from each other. It is religion at its worst. Strange how it is that the minority, those fanatical or fundamental elements seems to attract the most attention and cause the most problems.

It is my deepest fear that should another 9-11 unfold on August 22 or at any time in the future that we will begin separating certain people, certain religions from society on mass scale as was done to the Japanese and German Americans during World War II. Separation is the most elementary step, the quickest most efficient manner to begin solving a perceived problem. It represents a dissection of society that slowly bleeds all of mankind to the point of unconsciousness: a perfect example of the cure being worse that the disease.

There is no doubt in my mind that we are on the verge of mass hysteria where thoughts could reach a critical mass to the point we begin believing that in order to save us from the enemy we will need to exercise the most vicious and irreparable of all strategies.

The only problem is how do we separate us from ourselves?