The Value of Human Life

This is an excerpt from the recently re-released 'Twilight of Empire' (Perceval Press), featuring a new foreword by Howard Zinn. This piece was written soon after the occupation began, but we feel it still has resonance.

The ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq presents a special challenge for Muslims who self-identify as socially and politically progressive. The challenge is to speak out, rise up, and act against the unilateral American display of unbridled military power, as well as against acts of violence by some Iraqis toward that same American might or perceived Iraqi sympathizers. This double critique arises out of the Qur'anic view that to save the life of one human being--any human being--is to have saved the life of all humanity, and to take the life of a single human being, any human being, is as if to destroy all of humanity [Qur'an 5:32].

At the heart of a progressive Muslim identity is a simple assumption, the notion that all human life on this planet--Muslim and non-Muslim, female and male, civilian and military, poor or rich, "North" or "South," gay or straight--carries exactly the same intrinsic worth. This essential value of human life is due to the presence of Divine spirit in all of humanity, the same spirit that, according to the Qur'an, God breathed into each and every human being [Qur'an 15:29 and 38:72]. By starting from this premise of the worth and dignity of each and every human life, progressive Muslims move to affirming the sanctity of each human life and the right of each community to a notion of global justice that allows them to realize their vision of prosperity, dignity, and righteousness, as long as that vision does not come at the expense of any other community. We have to be clear about this point: our task is not to "humanize" Iraqis--one can only humanize something that is not already fully human. The Iraqis, exactly like us, already possess their full God-given humanity. If we have failed to see and interact with Iraqis on a human level, if we have not listened to their cries, seen their tears, mourned their deaths, it is because they have been presented to us as inhuman, subhuman, or nonhuman.

Progressive Muslims oppose the occupation of Iraq on many fronts. First and foremost, the horrific tactics followed by the Bush administration, including the bombing of heavily populated urban sites, have lead to a large number of civilian casualties. Following in the footsteps of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Dalai Lama, we reject this unleashing of violence against the poorest peoples of the earth. The perverse pleasure that the Pentagon and State Department derived from their death fantasy, described as Operation "Shock and Awe," does indeed shock the sensitivity of those who see Iraqis as fellow human beings with hopes and dreams and loves and joys of their own that are every bit as precious as our own. The Bush regime repeatedly attempted to persuade/delude us that this operation would be accurate and precise, that these bombs are very "smart." So-called "smart bombs" used in a misguided policy of deliberate cruelty result in nothing short of indiscriminate massacre.

The loss of human life on the Iraqi side affects Muslims powerfully, leading directly to an increase in vehement anti-Americanism all over this world. The American presence in Iraq, coupled with U.S. support of an Israeli regime bent on brutal oppression of Palestinians: these lead to a volatile and dangerous rise in hatred of America and Americans all over the world. While many Americans may wish to see ourselves as upholders of freedom and democracy, many people all over the world--and increasingly large numbers of Muslims--see the U.S. as a supporter of many forms of exploitation, domination, and oppression.