“I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.”
These words, spoken to a church group by Lieutenant General William Boykin, at first sound like the boastings of a schoolboy. In reality, they are the sentiments of the Pentagon’s top intelligence officer, a deputy undersecretary of defense, talking about Osman Atto, a terrorist he was trying to catch in Somalia.
Along with other statements made by the general, the two above reveal a man dangerously ignorant about religion and yet using it to degrade his enemies. In particular, his views about Islam threaten to solidify the impression held by many Muslims around the world that America is fighting against their religion.
President Bush has said otherwise, insisting that ours is not a war against Islam but rather against terrorism. General Boykin seems not to have got the message.
This supposed specialist in intelligence displays an astounding ignorance of the facts. By contrasting the God of Islam with that of Christianity, he shows himself unaware of a huge fact: both religions worship the same God.
That recognition of the one God has always served as a common bond between Islam and Christianity, though admittedly Christians and Muslims have often ignored it in practice. Mohammed himself, when he launched Islam in the 7th century, openly recognized that Judaism and Christianity worshiped the same God as he. That recognition is clear in the Qur’an, the sacred book of Muslim religion.
For the general to call his God bigger, as if there are two, is fatuous. Similarly, for him to brand the God of the Muslims an idol is both ignorant and insulting. To people who profess Islam this charge comes as a deeply offensive remark.
The true God can always be made into an idol by people who worship money or prestige or power as their supreme reality. But to imagine that because people’s faith differs from Christian belief it is the worship of idols is seriously mistaken. In this age of ecumenical understanding among those of varying faiths, this accusation smacks of old-fashioned prejudice.
General Boykin also believes that we are a Christian nation. It is true, of course, that Christian tradition influenced the founding of our country. The founders were people schooled in the ways of this religion, though some did not practice it themselves and they did not legislate its establishment as in England.
Currently, a large number of religions flourish in America. Every large metropolitan area is home to many different communities of faith. More than ever before, the United States is a multi-religious country, filled with non-Christian as well as Christian residents.
So America is not a Christian nation in the way the General would have us think. When he says “Our spiritual enemy will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus,” he may express his own belief but he excludes many Americans for whom Jesus is not the inspiration for spiritual struggle.
When Boykin says “We are hated because we are a nation of believers,” he again makes it look as if we only and not others hold faith important. Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, and many other countries of the world are nations of believers, the difference being that Islam is the religion of the majority there.
The general believes that the enemy is “a guy called Satan.” Again, if that view is important in his religion, he has a right to profess it. But for a public official to present this identification as part of public policy is of dubious value because it has so often proven harmful to demonize enemies.
Boykin seems to imagine that America is waging a holy war, a campaign undertaken with God’s blessing, over against the irreligiousness of others. Even more dangerously, he claims a direct pipeline to God. Speaking of Mogadishu he said, “It is a demonic presence in that city that God has revealed to me as the enemy.”
If, as the old proverb says, a little ignorance is a dangerous thing, then the large ignorance of General Boykin would seem to make even more hazardous our nation’s continuing struggle against terror.
Richard Griffin