Can We Cure the Pro-Hamas Protestors of Their Bigotry?
Prejudice "deforms the soul." Perhaps the best response is love.
Edited on 12/14/2023: I had previously written “But as we oppose them, perhaps a better emotional response than anger is pity.” I changed it to “But as we oppose them, perhaps a better emotional response than anger is love.”
Edited on 12/5/2023: I had previously written “Jamie Winship is a Christian who goes into terrorist camps and bands of Muslim extremists in order to help them find Jesus and put aside their hateful ideology.” I changed it to “Jamie Winship is a Christian who goes into terrorist camps and bands of Muslim extremists in order to help them find Jesus and put aside their extremism.” The former phrasing made it sound like Islam itself was a “hateful ideology” which wasn’t my intention.
I also added the following paragraph in the “Action Items” section to clarify that prejudice really does exist across the political spectrum:
“Prejudice against both Jewish people and Palestinians is also on the rise. I’ve focused much of this piece on anti-Semitism, but Palestinian-Americans also face intimidation, harassment, and even threats.”
Pro-Hamas protests are becoming more common–including from people openly praising the rape and murder of Israeli civilians. At one recent event, protestors rallied around a large banner with a Palestinian flag that read "By Any Means Necessary." Other protestors went even farther, and ripped down signs of kidnapped Israeli civilians.
According to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, 51 percent of respondents aged 18-24 believed that "the Hamas killing of 1200 Israeli civilians on Israel can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians."
Many of us are appalled by the actions of these protestors. That's perfectly justified; and we should continue to vociferously fight against such toxic ideas and even employ the law where pro-Hamas protestors are engaging in illegal activity (such as tearing down posters).
But as we oppose them, perhaps a better emotional response than anger is love.
In her book The Soul of Civility, Alexandra Hudson points out that prejudice "deforms the soul." When pro-Hamas folks spit on the humanity of Israelis, they damage themselves almost as much as they damage Jewish people. Some of these bigots' lives may look alright on the outside, but the people who support rape and murder of innocent civilians based on their ethnicity have not exactly found inner peace. Their hatred is just the boiling-over of the chaos and pain inside their own hearts.
Attacking the pro-Hamas protestors might feel good, but it's not going to change their minds. Rather than attacking them, perhaps a better response is to engage with their humanity and try to heal their broken spirits. This actually has a proven track record of changing hearts and minds.
Jamie Winship is a Christian who goes into terrorist camps and bands of Muslim extremists in order to help them find Jesus and put aside their extremism. He's won over hundreds of extremists simply by loving and caring for them. In one city, a leader of a terrorist cell kidnapped Winship and drove him into the desert. Once in the desert, he kicked Winship out of his car and said that he was going to kill him. Winship wanted to get angry, but instead he chose to see the other man as a child of God–not to focus on the worst he had done, but to focus instead on the best that he could be. Winship responded to the terrorist, "I am not afraid, and I want to be your friend."
Winship's statement floored the terrorist. He didn't kill Winship. Even more amazingly, he invited Winship and his wife to dinner the next night. That night, Winship says, the entire terrorist cell "decided to withdraw from all hostilities in the region."
There's an old Arab proverb: "He who strikes the second blow starts the fight." The terrorist leader who wanted to kill Winship struck the first blow. But Winship didn't choose to strike the second blow. Instead he chose to turn the other man, not with violence but with peace; not with a raised fist, but with an olive branch and an appeal to the other man's true identity as a child of God.
The foundation of the West, going back to the Enlightenment, is what's called universalism. Universalism is the idea that every human being has equal and intrinsic worth. We're all children of God, and as such we all have the spark of the divine inside of us. We may make bad choices, even choices that need to be condemned; but underneath those choices we are still human and we deserve to be treated as such.
This philosophy of universalism is antithetical to the ideology of the pro-Hamas protestors. But perhaps the best way to enroll them into this radically pro-human philosophy is to lead by example and give them a taste of what they're missing.
Action Items:
It's not just the pro-Hamas protestors; prejudice of all stripes is not uncommon in our society. As professor of political science at Kentucky State University Wilfred Reilly notes, racial prejudice is at historically low levels but that doesn't mean that it's been eradicated. Reilly notes that "A well-received study out of Memphis…found that black rental applicants were not offered an apartment in 8 to 9 percent of situations whereas essentially identical white counterparts were." Similarly, a 2015 Gallup poll found that 8 percent of Americans wouldn't vote for a qualified black candidate running for president on their party's ticket.
Prejudice against both Jewish people and Palestinians is also on the rise. I’ve focused much of this piece on anti-Semitism, but Palestinian-Americans also face intimidation, harassment, and even threats.
More endemic is prejudice towards people who believe things that we don't agree with. As early as 2010, 33% of Democrats and 49% of Republicans reported that they would be concerned if their child married someone from the other political party. An article published in Political Behavior found that "partisans dehumanize their political opponents in both subtle and blatant ways."
This prejudice may not be as soul-destroying as turning a blind eye to rape and murder, but it is psychologically and spiritually damaging all the same. It's also a lot more common.
With this fact in mind, I have two recommendations for all of us to try:
1) Take a good look inside your own soul and look for any areas, however minor, where you are making blanket negative judgments towards a group of people. Braver Angels' workshop Depolarizing Within is a great resource, especially for folks struggling with prejudice towards their political opponents. If you do find any areas where you are making these sweeping judgments, commit to rooting them out and correcting them. I had to do this myself, and it took time but I felt much lighter afterwards.
2) If someone in your life is prejudiced, commit to seeing them accurately. This doesn't mean that you have to keep them in your life; some people are not merely prejudiced but abusive, and we all have the right to draw distinctions in terms of who we allow into our life. But commit to seeing them as they truly are, as a beautiful and flawed human struggling with things that most of us have struggled with. Commit to responding to them out of love rather than reacting out of anger or wounded pride.
And let me know how it goes!
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