A Spiritual Response to the San Bernardino Terrorist Attack
Where is the Muslim Gandhi?
The terrorist attack in San Bernardino hit very close to home for me. San Bernardino is 55.5 miles from where I live.
In my humble opinion, before we start to point fingers, engage in conspiracy theories and chastise those who would
use this tragedy for any political agenda, we need to view the entire incident through a spiritual lens, focusing on compassion.
So, let’s take a look at each of the parties involved.
Obviously, the victims and their families deserve our compassion. They were innocent victims, going to a holiday work party to celebrate the holiday season. So, let’s shine compassion on the souls of the victims and on their families.
Secondly, the
neighbors who saw “suspicious” activities by the alleged perpetrators. They deserve our compassion as well. Those that saw what they believed to be suspicious activity and did not report it to the proper authorities need our compassion – they are suffering severe emotional turmoil right now after 14 people were killed and many more injured. They deserve our compassion because they did not trust their intuition. If you observe anyone doing anything suspicious, it doesn’t matter if they’re black or white, Muslim or Jewish or Christian. All that matters is what they are doing and what your gut feeling is. We here in the West have been so discouraged from trusting our intuition. In the spiritual realm, intuition is honed and honored. So, this must be one of the take-aways from this incident.
Third, we need to have compassion for the perpetrators. They are acting out an agenda that must be examined from the root cause. What Muslim terrorists (and this is a very small portion of the Muslim population, as the religion itself is based on peace) are doing is based on a century or more of oppression and colonialism. They are choosing violence to protest this. I am by no means condoning their action. What they did in San Bernardino - as in Paris, as anywhere where violence is used - was reprehensible. I am trying to widen the lens and look at this from the root cause. The root causes are manifold including:
All of this is now coming to roost as Muslims demand freedom, autonomy and integrity of their land, all of which they deserve.
Fourth: Compassion for the baby the perpetrators left behind. It is unfathomable how a couple hell-bent on destruction would bring a baby into this world. This baby needs our infinite compassion as its parents are murderers. To start one’s life with that kind of blood on one’s soul will take a tremendous amount of unconditional love.
The spiritual question is: Who is the Muslim Gandhi who will
choose peace over violence and lead Muslims to freedom and autonomy through peace?
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