Homeland Insecurity

How did it happen? How did the United States of America, bastion of exceptionalism, exempt from the curse of history, blessedly free of the atavistic hatreds of the old world?how did it become the scene of one of the most hideously bedeviled conflicts of all time?

Quite simply, it happened because America lost its grasp of its own historic character, and embraced "diversity" as a national goal. In the name of equality and nondiscrimination we invited mass immigration from every part of the globe, and made no demands on the newcomers to become Americans. In fact, we gave up our American core, adopted multiculturalism and declared all cultures equal. We invited the new groups to celebrate themselves while we cravenly permitted libelous denigration of our own past. Like fools we prated that diversity is our strength, when common sense and all of history tell us that strength comes from unity.

Absolute nondiscrimination meant we no longer enforced standards, made judgments, distinguished between good and evil, friend and foe. We grew lazy, stupid and careless?about our borders, about national security, even about previous terrorist attacks against us. We worried over our "hate crimes" and our "racial profiling," while men resided in our midst who seethed with murderous fury even against our children and plotted our destruction. Now we have a fifth column, fear further assaults and labor under a draconian security regime that is changing the nature of our lives.

As we suddenly reawaken to feelings and allegiances we were formerly too timid to assert, we also wait for the millions of Muslims in America to express their loyalty, their patriotism, their love of our land. A ruthlessly illuminating article in The New York Times, based on "extended conversations" with teenagers at Al Noor, a private Islamic school in Brooklyn, splashes cold water on that hope, however, especially when we learn that the sentiments expressed "are similar to those posted by Muslim Americans on the numerous Internet chat rooms and message boards about Islam."

The Al Noor students see America as the "one place where Muslims are free to be themselves," yet at the same time they "cannot be shaken from the conviction that America is intrinsically anti-Muslim." They told the Times reporter, quite unself-consciously it appears, that they empathize with "the young Muslims around the world who profess hatred for America and Americans."

Some said they would abandon America to "support any leader who they decided was fighting for Islam." They fretted about "hatred" and negativity directed toward Muslims in our culture, although they gave no examples, but showed little feeling for the catastrophic suffering inflicted in the name of their religion on Sept. 11.

In fact, many of them refuse to believe that Osama bin Laden or any Muslim had anything to do with the attack because, they say, such behavior violates the precepts of Islam?which is tantamount to saying no Muslim can ever do wrong. Despite numerous concerned phone calls and offers of assistance to the school from the surrounding non-Muslim community, these young people harbor wholly unfounded suspicions of a backlash against Muslims, though, as they admit, none of them has experienced any form of harassment.

While the anti-American animus in this immigrant community is deeply troubling, are not these young people reflecting back to us the very attitudes we told them to adopt?a sense of entitlement without any sense of duty, and the right to protest "bias" and "hatred" without any corresponding responsibility to show loyalty to the country? Like mainstream students, the Muslim youngsters are allowed and encouraged to indulge in blatant denial of facts, to flout rational standards of truth, and to be ignorant of American history?indeed, they seem to know nothing of our recent efforts to help Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia and elsewhere.

Also, like many mainstream students, these young Muslim Americans haven't the foggiest notion of how our country's freedoms are secured and maintained. They look forward to prosperous lives in the U.S. as doctors, lawyers and teachers, yet, according to the Times, their "ideal society would follow Islamic law and make no separation between religion and state."

It's often been said that America is not a nation in the traditional sense but only an "idea," and that therefore anyone can become an American by simply signing on to our values. Having given up our historic particularity, however, we don't even bother teaching the idea anymore, do we? The truth is that the idea of America is nothing if it is not rooted in a sense of identity, of peoplehood, of belonging. As C.S. Lewis might put it, it's not syllogisms that sustain us in battle, but sentiments, the sentiments we Americans refused to convey, the beliefs we refused to impart, the legacy we have so ignobly betrayed.