A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on February 27th, 2009 in US News

Abdallah Al-Ajmi isn’t a household name, by any measure. But his story, beginning in a pilgrimage to Pakistan and running through Guantanomo Bay detention, carries a lesson, if anyone is open to learn it.

From his point of view, Al-Ajmi was simply trying to help Pakistani refugees and study the Koran. For that, he was detained for four long years. Not surprisingly, he didn’t just “get over it” when he was released. Instead, he drove a truck bomb into an Iraqi guard station and took thirteen other human beings with him to his death.

It may be true that Al-Ajmi would have been radicalized if he had remained in Pakistan anyway. But if he had, then it would not have been our responsibility. We would have played no hand in it. He may also have settled down to a life of contemplative prayer and raising a few goats and chickens.

What was done to Al-Ajmi was evil. There is no way around it. It was our evil. It is not enough to simply have our new President say, “We won’t do that any more. Sorry.” There is no healing without justice, and as long as both the people who ordered the torture, and the people who carried it out, walk about without a care, then we cannot claim that such men are not seeking justice.

I want to be clear that they are not achieving justice – striking out blindly at people who had nothing to do with your victimization is not justice, it is simply passing along the violence. But they seek justice. It is their inability to move towards justice through peaceful means that helps radicalize them. Our hands are not entirely clean in this matter.

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