We must remember our own past, and learn from it, such that we can heed the future.

Every major religion has had periods during it's existence where the rest of the world labeled them as "radical," "extremist," or just plain violent.

That was my post today on Facebook. I was talking to a co-worker about a recent holiday trip to Thailand. For some reason, the conversation steered toward the potential for violence in that part of the world. I thought of the violence in recent years which have plagued areas like Indonesia, Thailand, and even a few nightclubs in Fiji. Suddenly my revered Fiji Water doesn't taste as refreshing.

I recall a conversation with a friend and amateur hobbyist of history and war (yeah, they're the folks who lurk around in public libraries reading old, thick books, and probably do very well on Jeopardy). He reminded me that every major religion has been accused of violence rooted in intolerance and persecution.

Ironically, without religious persecution by the tyrannic Christian church in England, the Pilgrims would not have had the incentive to flee to the New World. Thus strengthening the argument that America was founded on the the need for freedom, from persecution and otherwise. Indeed the famous sonnet by Emma Lazarus echoes this and is engraved on the most prominent symbol of what American stands on, the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Recent events regarding a proposed Islamic community center/mosque in NYC has wreaked havoc among some still enraged from the 9/11 attacks. I've read many arguments for and against this building that it seems no decision will ever come about. The talking heads of the media world are having a field day with this event most excellent of fodder to fill gaps between Blagojevich shenanigans and Lindsay Lohan's latest debaucherous activity:

-Is it reasonable to think that if we halt the construction of this building, then it will stop terrorist activity on the homeland?

-It is an embarrassment to this country that we're coming up on a decade after 9/11, and the rebuilding at ground zero is not done yet. It would be a bigger embarrassment if the construction/retrofit of this Burlington Coat Factory building were completed before the Freedom Tower.

-With all the mosques throughout NYC, why build this one so close? You would think the investors would want to be more sensitive to the people around them. Though that does not legitimize what people are thinking. Rather it further perpetuates the notion that these "people" are trouble makers. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do it.

-Though we may not agree with the beliefs of the group of people labeled as extremist, radical, violence, before we persecute them, we should remember that the fundamentals of Christianity, which as a country we so strongly believe in that it is etched on our money, was itself made of a history of extremist, radical, and violent behavior.

As a naturalized citizen in the United States, I'm grateful for the opportunity for my family and I to immigrate. We didn't escape a land of tyranny and starvation, barren of opportunity and hope. In fact we had quite a comfortable life in my home country. We came to the US because the grass was greener on the other side - though I have to conclude, in this case, the grass is indeed greener on the other side.

We are fortunate to be afforded benefits and security by this country to legal citizens. We are a country founded on the need to escape persecution/violence to find freedom. A country which itself minimized groups of people based on race (Slavery, Japanese Internment, and yes, even women). The tumultuous history of this country evolved this country to the bastion of capitalism, freedom, and powerhouse of today.

The latter part of the conversation I had with my history-loving friend was about the evolution of war. That wars are waged on a combination of Power and Religion. The need for power or religious domination come from fear. It is human nature to fear what we don't understand. Our xenophobic tendencies will only tickle our curiosity to an extent, leaving us to wallow in fear the rest of the time. We fear what we don't understand, their traditions and perspectives are so foreign to us that we are afraid of what crazy stuff they will do next in the name of their faith. We want power over another group of people because we are afraid of what they will do if they remain uncontrolled (think Cold War, Vietnam). We greedily fight over resources because we fear what will happen if we don't have enough.

As long as man exists, we are destined to be cloaked in these things - and our own existence is a challenge to keeping the peace. That doesn't mean we should give up. We need to understand the results of our fears so that we can benefit from it. That old saying is correct, "Those who don't learn from the past are destined to repeat it."