From the book Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, by Jeffery Goldberg.
The thinking of scriptural fundamentalists seems, to the secular-minded, or even to the sort of person like me who feels the constant presence of God in his life but does not believe Him to be partisan in His love, as lunacy on stilts. It is also cruel beyond measure. Fundamentalism is the thief of mercy.
What a great quote.
Some pages later Goldberg describes what he says, after being arrested in Gaza, during an interrogation by Arab who is accusing him of being a spy. Goldberg insists that he is a journalist working on a story the possibility of Jews and Arabs coexisting in the same stretch of land.
I told him I thought that there must be a way to create on this narrow ledge of land a place for Jews and Muslims to live in peace, side by side, without perfect justice, but without murder, either. Now, I know Jews better than I know Arabs. I think the Jews –not all, God knows, but many– are readying themselves for this day. But I don’t know about the Arabs. There are people who tell me they know the answer, but I don’t trust these people. In the Middle East, people who say the have the answers often don’t know the questions. So what I’m doing (and if I keep talking without pause, maybe you’ll forget about torturing me, or at least give me m cell phone back, yes?) is searching for the right questions.
So far this books is filled with writing that is making me think, and making me want to keep reading. Wow.
Tags: book, Fundamentalism, Islam, Isreal, Jeffery Godberg, Jews, Middle East, Muslim, Quote, The Atlantic