In the shadow of 9-11, who is our enemy?

Muslims are not our enemy.

In the days after 9-11, President Bush reminded the country of this important truth, and its bears repeating. Muslims are not our enemy. There are millions of Americans who profess the Muslim faith, and beyond our borders are millions upon millions more appalled by the 9-11 terror attack.

But as Muslims are not our enemy, we owe it to ourselves and to them to ask who or what our enemy really is.

Is the enemy just Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda terrorist network, and other organizations allegedly involved in the Sept. 11 and subsequent terrorist attacks?

Is the enemy fundamentalism? If so, does that apply to other "flavors" of fundamentalism, including Hindu fundamentalism and Chistian fundamentalism?

Is the enemy extremism in general?

What is the spiritual component to what we have been seeing before and after the attacks? What should we be praying for?

Some people are saying that we brought the attacks on ourselves because of our political or economic policies. They fault us for backing Israel despite its troubled relationship with the Palestinians that has led to a yearlong intifadah, and in propping up corrupt foreign governments because of their benefits to us in terms of trade or political leverage, even in the face of horrendous human rights.

Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell went as far as blaming homosexuals and abortionists. What should we as a church be repenting of?

I can't speak for anyone else, but as a Christian myself I find it troubling to hear people wishing Osama bin Laden the most exquisite deaths imaginable and gloating over the probable soteriological sceniarios now being played out by the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks. My wife and I pray daily for the people in Afghanistan and for the Taliban, for their repentance and for revival in that nation.

Who is our enemy? The answer we settle on will have profound implications for us as a people and for our nation.


Copyright © 2001 by David Learn. Used with permission.