The times are getting darker. We are in a war that we never
imagined and our country is strongly divided, not only by political but also
religious lines. There is a tension in the air of America that I have not felt
before and I don’t think many others have. We are in a time where we hear about
growing corruption in government and reduction in social services. It leaves you
with a sense of once great nation that is now in great peril.

Once the dust settled down from the falling towers in New
York City, and people were reassessing their lives, one question came to
everyone’s mind; why do they hate us? Throughout the course of time and debates
since that horrific September morning, no question merits more need to a
truthful answer than that.

We have all heard reasoning behind the attacks, including
analysis of the hate that Osama Bin Laden and his faithful followers have for
us. Our President even said they hated us because of our freedoms. That would
seem to lead to more of a envy than a hatred though, especially when we allow
them to live here.

Once we invaded Iraq, it became clearer to me why they may
hate us. It is not because we live free and have a wonderful life in America.
It’s not because we are a rich nation in which most citizens are overweight and
we can live on such things as Big Macs and Whoppers. You can also dismiss the
notion that their hate stems in part from our great entertainment.

So why is it they hate us so much? It is because Americans
have a sense of infallibility and a tendency to force their beliefs onto others.

Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, President Bush said we
will conduct a “crusade” against those who attacked us. This was quickly
realized to be a terribly choice of words. When one hears of crusades, they
think of the Christian crusades that happened centuries ago in which Christians
were trying to push their beliefs onto people.

Now we are seeing how some right wingers are trying to
rewrite history and making America into a country that not only founded
democracy, but established upon Christian values. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Now I admit that I am no great historian, but I do remember the
stories of the pilgrims and the Mayflower.

The pilgrims came to this strange new world to escape a
leader that would not allow their religious freedoms. They wanted to be free to
practice their religions without the fear of persecution from their king. That
gave those daring souls the confidence and bravery they needed to leave their
homeland behind and take on an adventure that would change the world.

When important documents such as the Declaration of
Independence and our Constitution were authored, they were done so to protect
the ideologies that the pilgrims had in believing people should be free to
practice their beliefs. This is a simple notion that has been tested time and
time again throughout the history of our nation.

We also know from history that democracies were around long
before Christianity. Ancient Greece had its own democracy long before the
churches were born. This in its self disproves that democracy was born because
of Christianity.

So what makes our times we live in now so scary? Once all
other reasoning’s behind toppling Saddam Huessein were disproved, our President
took another approach. We were no longer on a hunt for WMD or attacking someone
who was behind the terrible attacks against us. We learned these reasons were
all false and now possibly fabricated. Now we are hearing that we have engaged
in this war to spread democracy to the Middle East.

 This is what brings out the fear. If certain members of
the right, the ones who support this war, believe that democracy is viable
because of Christianity, then in fact we would have to convert the Muslim world
into Christians in order for the democracy to work. This is possibly one reason
why we are faced with such opposition to our presence in the region. We are not
only threatening the leaders of some nations in the Middle East, but also
threatening the way of life for the majority of the region.

This could be the reasoning behind the awesome victory the
hardliner enjoyed in Iran’s recent elections. It also could be a result of Iran
and Iraq trying to work out military deals now. Our very presence and reasons
for attacking are putting the Muslim people on a greater defense.

For decades we have been interfering in the Middle East,
and now we got a strongly outspoken President, who throws his religious beliefs
around like no other, that has taken the interference in the Middle East to an
unprecedented level. Before we interfered silently using such agencies as the
CIA to create turmoil in the area. Now we are more blatant and showing the world
we are not afraid to go in there.

We were told about the great greeting we would receive from
the citizens of Iraq. We would be looked upon as liberators and heroes. To this
day we have yet to see this outpouring of affection from the people. Instead we
are faced with increased terror attacks and an insurgency that we did not
predict and our administration tried to ignore.

This week we saw a horrific reminder of September 11 occur
in London. Not long after that we found out that a new Muslim extremist group
had taken claim to the attack. While this has not been proven yet, it still
makes you wonder how many other groups are out there now that we do not know
about. We could just now be seeing the rise of many more extremist groups that
will stop at no ends to protect their way of life. We are also now reminded of a
time not so long ago where we get confronted with increased terror watch levels.
 

If and when we recover from this time, I hope one lesson
that is learned from it all will resonant throughout our leaders for generations
to come. Politics and religion are a bad mixture, especially in a diverse world.
Now I don’t want to come across as some god hating individual, I do believe
religion is a great source of faith and guidance for some. It is something that
should be decided upon by each individual. Each person should have the right to
say which god they believe in or where they believe humanity started. Once we
start using religion to rule the people, then the democracy is dead and we are
right back to that world that the pilgrims worked so hard to leave!