bin Laden Assassination

While we all share some relief at the announcement of the death of Osama bin Ladin, I return cautiously to a question I asked almost ten years ago following the 9/11 attack: Why do people like bin Ladin hate us so?

It was too soon to ask the question as I did on the Sunday following 9/11. Emotions were too raw, the reactions too angry. But now, with the death of the mastermind to the attacks, might we ask again the Why question?

Why do human beings from another culture dedicate their lives to hating America?

Amid all the reports, analysis, and concerns about backlash surrounding bin Laden’s death, will there also be a serious attempt to get behind the rage and revenge that animated him and al-Qaida? Will commentators, who must talk relentlessly about the matter, ever get around to considering the grievances represented by bin Laden?  Will there be a national conversation about what motivated him?

Ten years ago I likened the attack on the World Trade Center to a huge, horrible version of a child’s temper tantrum. Once the child is isolated and the danger to others is abated, I suggested, it behooves the more mature to wonder creatively about what prompted the misbehavior. It does no good to simply squelch the acting out by force of power, then to feel smugly superior to the lesser one who behaved so badly. We must ask: what prompted this outburst? How does the world look different through the eyes of the one who is so desperate as to lose his own life in order to fly a plane into a building to get our attention? What offense, real or perceived, results in such reaction?

And, dare we ask as Americans: what part did we play, intended or unintended, that created such a violent response? Are there positive actions that we can now take out of love for our neighbor, both our neighbor as ally and neighbor as enemy, that might mitigate such rage going forward? 

For Americans who follow the One who ask, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” there is a spiritual calling to embody such love of violent neighbors. Or at least enough intellectual curiosity to ask hard questions.