America's theological blindside

As the internet has already told us, Donald Trump’s proposal for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” is outrageous. But nonetheless, this new proposal to combat ISIS raises very pertinent questions: “What are we really at war against, and how do we fight it?” Trump’s call to action suggests that America is at war with a religion (or at least part of it) and that the temporary solution is to act as if America is at war with all of it.

The difficulty in condemning Trump’s words is that there are indeed elements of truth here; therefore, we shouldn’t dismiss Trump’s statements either as backwards or as clinical cases of “Islamophobia” and “xenophobia.” Although we may hear and use these labels all the time, they are morally evasive and don’t communicate what precisely is wrong with Trump’s proposal. It is also not helpful to say that acting out of fear is exactly what ISIS wants us to do because, even if that assertion is true, the opposite of what our enemy wishes isn’t always what we should do. For instance, if ISIS doesn’t want us to use nuclear weaponry against them, it doesn’t mean that we ought to. Also, to fear is not always wrong; the question we need to ask is whether the proposed object of fear is worthy of it. We need to parse carefully.

The first thing we certainly know is that the radical philosophy and actions of ISIS do not represent all Muslims nor speak for all of practicing Islam. As a survey by the Pew Research Center indicates, the proportion of Muslims who report having a positive view of ISIS is not insignificant but definitely a minority. Yet at the same time, to claim that the driving philosophy of ISIS is merely an ideology that is a warped offshoot from Islam is to not recognize ISIS’s specific theological grounding. While an ideology can be any set of ideals and principles that makes truth claims, a theology is an ideology that makes the deity(s) the center of reality and truth. And while the less-desirable parts of a culture can often be adjusted to fit a modern agenda, theological claims are absolute truth claims, which can be either right or wrong but not outdated.

ISIS’s propaganda magazine, “Dabiq,” which is a fascinating read, indicates an aspiration and motivation that is highly theological. Dabiq tries to justify its vision for politics and society through scores of references to the Qur’an (Allah’s Word and Islam’s highest authority) and citations of Hadith (sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet, Muhammed). Although the majority of the Islamic community rejects the darker and violent interpretations that drive ISIS’s theology, this does not change the fact that our enemy, ISIS, is a theologically-driven enemy. The radical theology that drives ISIS also plays a role in other terror groups, such as Boko Haram, Al-Quaeda, Al-Shabab and the Taliban to name a few.

How does one fight a theological enemy? Not with the Constitution of the United States. Given that Europe had been torn apart by religious wars and that England had undergone great turmoil with religion as the state’s business, our founders positioned the U.S. government to facilitate a religiously pluralistic society. Accordingly, the First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Because the Constitution was designed to prevent governmental tyranny, it largely does not feature safeguards against either theological threats or moral implosions.

To reckon with ISIS, the American people must recognize two things: first that we wage war against a theological (not merely ideological) enemy and, second, that pure appeals to patriotic Americanism alone cannot win because the roots are shallow. Closing ourselves off from the rest of the world, as Trump suggests, would be a crude attempt to protect ourselves through isolation. His strategy could temporarily stave off defeat but would not at all address the root of the problem. Our Constitution, our government, our laws and our admiration for them cannot beat or solve the theology that drives ISIS. Yet this is a battle that must be fought.

In the past, the American people have risen up to challenge great moral evils and injustices, such as slavery and racial inequality. The phrase they have often wielded is an opening statement in The Declaration of Independence, which reads, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This is a theological statement, which asserts that people are not merely existing, but are created equal; thus they must have inherent sacred worth, which makes certain rights inalienable. What is so incredibly powerful about this line in the Declaration is its appeal, which is not to a law created by humans, but to the divine truth of the transcendent natural law.

So far, we have fought against ISIS and other like terrorists at the abstract level by containment. We have tried to identify the “radicalized,” track them and keep them out of America. Trump’s proposals and our efforts so far do not address the real problem. If we are to fight against ISIS at its theological base, we must switch to an offense that targets, cuts through and solves ISIS’s theological stronghold. We the people must assume responsibility and take the culture war into our own hands rather than offloading it to America’s immigration policies. We must bring to the battlefront transcendent weapons that existed long before America ever did. For there is a deeper magic, a light, that is more powerful than anything of this world. What America and our whole world needs is Truth that overcomes Darkness.