Anti-Climacus

LINK: OxBlog discusses Tom Friedman's latest column.

"I happened to be in Istanbul when the street outside one of the two synagogues that were suicide-bombed on Nov. 15 was reopened. Three things struck me: First, the chief rabbi of Turkey appeared at the ceremony, hand in hand with the top Muslim cleric of Istanbul and the local mayor, while crowds in the street threw red carnations on them. Second, the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who comes from an Islamist party, paid a visit to the chief rabbi — the first time a Turkish prime minister had ever called on the chief rabbi. Third, and most revealing, was the statement made by the father of one of the Turkish suicide bombers who hit the synagogues.

"We are a respectful family who love our nation, flag and the Koran," the grieving father, Sefik Elaltuntas, told the Zaman newspaper. "But we cannot understand why this child had done the thing he had done . . . First, let us meet with the chief rabbi of our Jewish brothers. Let me hug him. Let me kiss his hands and flowing robe. Let me apologize in the name of my son and offer my condolences for the deaths. . . . We will be damned if we do not reconcile with them.""

Which makes me very glad that I live in a country where we can go hammer-and-tongs at each other on questions of religion without anyone getting too bent out of shape, much less blown up (or other nastiness). Then again, it makes me wonder: I've often noted that the priorities I have as a Christian and the priorities I have as a lover of liberal democracy run counter to each other. I'm fortunate that I never have to choose between them, at least not in any serious way. But I feel like if I lived in Turkey (or any other hotspot of religious conflict in a democracy), I'd probably have to choose, which then leads to the obvious question: if you had to choose between eschewing some fervor in support of your religion (assuming you take your religion seriously) to help maintain the democratic stability of your country, and maintaining your faith strictly, whatever the consequences, which do you choose?