Dear Hadi,
The ongoing crisis in Gaza, with its brutal images of innocent women and children losing their lives, has deeply disturbed me and given me a profound sense of conflict.
I've lived in the USA for the past 30 years, and I adopted this country as my home with pride. Over the years, I convinced myself that certain actions my adopted country took were temporary lapses in judgment.
However, witnessing the U.S. government's current complicity in the violence by providing arms to Israel and the dissemination of misinformation about the conflict has shattered my faith.
Most people I work with parrot these narratives without understanding the Palestine and Israel conflict.
Living through these events has led me to question the principles I thought my adopted country stood for. It's disheartening to realize that the ideals I believed in might have been an illusion. This internal conflict is taking a toll on my general outlook. I find myself becoming increasingly negative about everything around me.
How can I cope with this disillusionment and feeling of isolation?
Dear Disillusioned,
The human tragedy that has unfolded before our eyes over the past couple of months has been nothing short of heart-wrenching. It has taken a toll on so many of us who see what is happening, see our government’s role in it, and feel helpless to aid those suffering. But during those times, as the Quran does in 12:87, we must remind ourselves that “none despairs of God’s mercy except those without faith.”
In order to cope with the feelings of isolation that you are having, we encourage you to consider the following. Although we strongly disagree with the government’s stance on this crisis, we are heartened to hear voices across the US speaking up for the rights of Palestinians in numbers we have never seen before.
CELAL GUNES / ANADOLU / GETTY IMAGES
The picture above is of a protest on November 4th in Freedom Plaza, Washington, DC, where over 300,000 attended. This was the largest march in support of Palestine in US history.
Taking part in some of these activities could help you feel less isolated.
Moreover, if you were to participate in these sorts of activities with interfaith groups, that could also help with the disillusionment – doing this can help us feel that although our government is acting in a way we cannot condone, many of our fellow Americans are trying to live up to the ideals of equality and liberty.
One other suggestion since you feel this is taking a toll on you. While we think it’s important to stay informed about what is happening, we know that so many are spending inordinate amounts of time on social media following countless posts and stories about the crisis in Gaza, and it may be a good idea to give yourself a break from viewing the brutal images and reading the posts or news you may have been following.
On a more general note, there is no shortage of things where we can feel that our government has fallen short. An easy and contemporary example is the invasion of Iraq on the pretext of WMDs and the countless needless lives lost in that campaign, as well as in the Iraqi embargo that preceded it.
The challenge, though, is to separate principles from practice.
The principles on which this nation is built remain a paragon in terms of democracy and justice. When the nation falls short of that, our challenge is to participate with those trying to rectify the course through peaceable means and not fall into despair and isolation.
We will show you one more image. We don’t usually use images in our advice column, but we do so specifically here because we understand, sympathize, and empathize with the effect that negative images can have on us and how painful they have been for you.
As an illustration of a positive in this country, look at the picture below of a gathering of ex-presidents of the United States for the funeral of President Richard Nixon. Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton were in attendance.
What brings US presidents together? Matt Stevens, NY Times, 12/4/2018
In how many nations would such a gathering be possible? In Muslim-majority countries, this phenomenon of ex-presidents often does not exist.
Here, it marks a principle we can be truly proud of, the democratic process leading to peaceful transitions of power among leaders who rule by the consent of the governed for a constitutionally limited time period.
In peace.