Given today's geopolitical situation, it's no surprise that Michael Winterbottom's film "A Mighty Heart," about the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, premieres just as the Muslim world rises in protest at the British government's grant of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie. The most memorable news photograph of the past week was that of the sandaled foot of a little boy stamping on a picture of Rushdie; the caption said the photo was taken in Lahore, Pakistan, but it could just as well have been Iraq or Morocco or Indonesia. The Pakistani government responded to the news of Rushdie's knighthood by granting its highest civilian honors to Osama bin Laden. The idea that Rushdie could be honored for distinguished contributions to English literature is, to the protestors, an insult; the only conceivable purpose for honoring Rushdie, they claim, is to show enmity toward everyone and everything Muslim, and to declare war against Islam. This, of course, is what the protestors teach their children, who trust their parents and teachers like all children everywhere. Which is why the little boy in Lahore stamped on the picture of Rushdie.
I have no idea if children in Pakistan and the Middle East are taught anything about Daniel Pearl. But his story and Rushdie's alike leave me afraid, angry, and grieving. What hope does the world have if children in Muslim countries are brought up to believe that everyone in the West actively seeks to destroy everything they hold sacred?
The same question, alas, can be asked of at least some of the children in our own country. Last year's documentary, "Jesus Camp," depicted a group of children from fundamentalist and evangelical Christian families, being tenderly brought up to believe that people who are pro-choice or believe that global warming is real are minions of Satan.
"When I'm with non-Christians, I feel kinda creepy...kinda yucky," says of the children at one point in the movie. Yes, the boy meant Muslims by that, and also Hindus, Jews, Buddhists and atheists. And he also meant Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians--all the mainstream Christian sects whom the evangelicals do not regard as true Christians, because they do not accept the Rapture and other doctrines put forth in the Schofield Reference Bible. As someone who has always been just fine with Lutheran interpretations of the King James Bible, I can't help but feel the noose tighten a little around my neck when a little boy says he finds people like me kinda creepy...kinda yucky.
George W. Bush once famously asked, "Is the children learning." Yes, Mr. President, they're learning. But some of the things they're learning scare me to death.
