The headline quote has stuck with me since my cross-cultural to the Middle-East last spring as the best comment on religion I have ever heard. My roommate’s host dad, Jalal, said it to him during our three-week stay in Palestine; he is a Christian man living in the town of Beit Sahour just outside of Bethlehem. The comment was particularly impactful due to this location because of the proximity to the birthplace of Jesus. This locational significance was due to the fact that despite being a Christian living in the heart of the holy land, Jalal believes that if one’s religion becomes a negative attribute in treatment of others, then they should place humanity first.
Religion means to give a moral compass to those that require it; however, this can lead to negative perspectives despite the positive intent. The negativity comes in the formation of in-groups and out-groups; when religion becomes exclusive, it loses its potential for positivity and becomes yet another structure that serves to divide humanity. Thus, Jalal urges that if an aspect of organized religion causes the oppression or ill-treatment of anyone in that moment, the religious perspective should be overlooked.
The other reason this comment was so instrumental to my understanding at the time was the context in which it was given from a political perspective. After all, Jalal is a Palestinian living in the West Bank. Luckily, Beit Sahour residents in general were not displaced during the creation of Israel due to their location on the West Bank, but they have certainly felt the strain that every Palestinian feels under the occupation.
In this context, the assumption becomes that the comment applies exclusively to Israel and the Jewish population. However, given further discussion with Jalal, it is just as applicable to the Muslim and Christian Palestinians as the Jewish Israeli population. Both sides are traumatized and hurt, and many respond with radicalism. From the Israeli side this comes in the form of the border wall and soul-crushing checkpoints (I can attest first-hand that they are awful), as well as general military presence in all aspects of Israeli life. On the Palestinian side, radicalism takes the form of terrorist attacks such as suicide bombings and knifings.
Often these events or structures are justified at least in part by religious ideals, and therein lies the significance of putting humanity first. If not properly questioned and analyzed, religion can blind us and give us false justification for inhuman acts, despite its purpose being to better humanity. Without the borders created by radicalism and religious fervor, a better, unified way of life could reveal itself to those involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, indeed, in many conflicts the world over. This is of course an oversimplification of the conflict, but it does describe one aspect that I witnessed. However, we still must ask ourselves: are we doing things because we truly believe that good human beings would do the same or because we have found religious justification and deem it an acceptable evil?
