9/11

Yesterday, to increase newspaper circulation and TV viewing, the state-controlled media wallowed in pity and repeatedly asked what we have learned from the tragic attack. . . ten years later, as though we had never considered it before.

That question took me back to my childhood. I remember catechism, the Catholic version of Sunday school. It was there that I was told that Catholicism was the only "real" religion, and by implication, that anyone who did not embrace it might be deprived of the glory of heaven. I was admonished not to set foot in any building housing a religion other than Catholicism without special dispension. When my high school choir went to sing at a Protestant church, I didn't ask any priest for permission, but, as a result of the experience, I neither felt damned to hell nor in the presence of evil. The members of the host church didn't seek me out for disapproval, and at that young age, I learned about accceptance. I decided to respect all those who lead moral lives, and I try to emulate them.

After 9/11, however, I learned that Islam is governed by a written tract that can be interpreted to say that all "infidels" (of which I am apparently one) must either embrace their faith or be put to the sword. Because some of the adherents have already acted upon it, I have become wary of the members of that one religion. I don't like that feeling, and if I prayed, I would ask God to change their minds.