Martyr Made To Order

As I drove to work this morning, a news reader delivered words written by Kayla Mueller to her family. Her words made me sad, as they seemed to convey surrender to God's will, having flowed from a graceful state of belonging to God. It read, in part, "I have surrendered myself to our creator. I have learned that even in prison, one can be free."

The world is seemingly pouring out with grief in the wake of her death. President Obama issued a statement that read, in part, "Michelle and I convey our deepest condolences to Kayla’s family... the country shares in their grief. Kayla represents what is best about America."

Sometime during the day, the name Rachel Corrie popped into my head, and I thought of similarities between her and Kayla. Rachel Corrie was also in her mid-twenties when she died, in a land far away from home. I thought that was the only similarity. I was wrong.

Both Rachel and Kayla were both, at one time, members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). ISM is portrayed as a peace movement on behalf of the Palestinian people, and believers in non-violence. Their website lists goals including the principle of being "non-violent in our actions that affect others." But ISM founder Adam Shapiro has been quoted saying of suicide bombers, "This is no less noble than carrying out a suicide operation. And we are certain that if these men were killed during such an action, they would be considered shaheed Allah(martyrs)." He has also written that "we accept that Palestinians have a right to resist with arms."

Thus I have to laugh when I see Rachel Corrie being referred to as a "peace activist." She threw herself in front of an Israeli bulldozer to martyr herself, after getting tired of burning American flags in Gaza. For this her parents were presented a framed picture of her, by Yassar Arafat, engineer of the second intifada.

Kayla Mueller has been described in similar glowing terms. She has been called an "aid worker." For her efforts, she has been honored by ISM, describing her volunteer time with Palestinians as an effort "against the confiscation of their lands due to Israel’s illegal annexation wall and settlements."

Many people abandon mis-guided ideals of their youth when adulthood comes. And Kayla was highly idealistic, volunteering with, among others, Big Brothers and Sisters, at an AIDS clinic, on behalf of African refugees to Israel, and finally, the organization Support To Life.

So it's hard to hate Kayla, and I don't. Perhaps had she advanced in years she would have come to see both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I do feel that she was used by people for their own aims at certain times in her life. People who would think nothing of asking her to step in front of a bulldozer. And her story is now being appropriated by those with their own agenda. Those who would murder her and stage her death as a result of a "Jordanian airstrike."

The American people are in the process of beatifying her. Maybe some in the media industrial complex will take some interest in the blogs she wrote while in "occupied" East Jerusalem. President Obama today is asking Congress for an Authorization of Military Force against ISIS. If we are building edifices that are to represent us, the least we can do is make sure they can stand up to scrutiny.