While in California last week, I had the occasion to read “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khalei Hosseini. The author was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and after several moves his family settled in San Jose, Calif.; the airport I flew into when visiting my son near Monterey.
Hosseini’s story points out the vast differences between the culture here and in the Middle East.
The book follows the lives of several women following the ouster of the Soviets and through the civil war that followed. Reading it, I considered how the chaos that followed the departure of the Soviet army in Afghanistan wouldn’t happen here in America. At least I hope it would never happen.
The relative peace and cooperation between the various cultures and racial groups in America is what gives us our stability, and I think what makes other nations envious of American successes. What worries me is, as I’ve written before, this current era in the United States characterized by increasing polarization between disparate political groups.
While we are nowhere near civil war, such as it happened in Afghanistan or is occurring in Iraq, there is an absence of civil political discourse today. Americans, influenced by instant access to news and TV personalities, have lost faith in the American political process. Having been constantly fed a diet of what’s wrong and what’s bad they have come to believe it to be reality.
We enjoy the freedom to think and speak our beliefs, be they political, social, religious or scientific in nature. If we collectively forget that America has survived for over 200 years by celebrating these freedoms, we risk degenerating into the fascist states now found in the Middle East.
Here’s the difference — the United States Constitution makes it clear that individual freedom is the keystone to our survival as a nation while countries like Iran and maybe Iraq are full of people who think that duty to country and/or their God is paramount. Hosseini’s book illustrates the depravity to which individuals living in similar states can sink. When the emphasis is placed on nationalism or religion, individual freedom ceases.
Here in the U.S. we have to be careful to allow all religious groups the freedom to express themselves within the law, but avoid allowing a particular religious belief to define our law. The women in Hosseini’s book are subjected to restrictions unthinkable in the U.S. today. And yet, there are those among us who would have certain religious customs and practices become standard across the nation. It can’t be allowed.
On the other hand, there are also those who are intolerant of the proselytizing of religious groups. Both groups are wrong. Our nation will survive without civil strife if we both tolerate religious preaching in the public square and continue to keep religious teaching out of the law.
It was and is the Judeo-Christian emphasis on free-will and a just God that allows people of every religious tradition to peacefully co-exist in this country. While we must honor the faith of our founding fathers, we must embrace the diversity that their forward thinking created. They recognized that a political institution can not have an opinion on the reality of a Supreme Being and remain fair to all its constituents.
During the political campaign currently plaguing this nation — sorry I couldn’t help but get in a dig — the recent weeks have finally highlighted the religious tension largely unspoken before Sen. Barrack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Wright, came upon the scene. When he compared America to the Roman Empire, which killed Jesus, the conservative pundits went crazy. Imagine, the United States of America persecuting another people for their religious beliefs.
Whether you believe that to be the case in Iraq or not, it does raise the question of how our nation perceives religion here and in the world as a whole. Are we out to export our predominant religions as well as democracy? Or is the shoe on the other foot and religious fanaticism invading the U.S? Either way, it seems to me we have to get our own house in order, before we export anything.

Mike Tischio: 570-742-9671
miket@standard-Journal.com