Outrage, Not Abuse, Tells Who We Are

Had all you can take about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal?

I have. But by saying so, I’m violating every tenet from journalism school and indirectly loosening the cornerstone of my profession: the principle that people have a right to know what their government is up to.

Let every photograph out, air every video, release every scrap of relevant information, the argument goes.

Trust the people. Believe it or not, that’s actually what is behind our journalistic mandate.

Yet, I’m wobbling. I’d never suggest we suppress the scandal, but doesn’t everybody by now know what happened?

Do we really need to see snapshots of every last indignity heaped on Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers?

Isn’t it time -- both for our national psyche and worldwide reaction -- to say that enough is enough?

That prompted a call to Shabbir Mansuri, a Muslim whose father informed him as a schoolboy in India that Shabbir would relocate in the United States as a young man. Mansuri says his father explained that America was where he’d have the most personal and intellectual freedom. So, in January 1969, the 23-year-old Mansuri touched down at LAX and began his new life.

Mansuri is now 58 and is the founder-director of the nonprofit Council on Islamic Education in Fountain Valley. Among its goals are to ensure that world religions are embraced under the 1st Amendment and to provide accurate information about Islam to textbook publishers and educators.

He was too polite to say “Tsk tsk” when informed of my misgivings. A quiet, thoughtful man, Mansuri often uses American newspapers to show Muslims and others outside the U.S. that we don’t bury our dirty laundry. It is an American trait that Mansuri much admires.

He knows how the American media operate and has a sense, he says, of how Muslims and Arabs around the world view the United States.

Among his favorite reference points in talking with them about America are its editorial pages, which he sees as, in essence, a window to our soul. And during his time in America, Mansuri says, those pages tell him that Americans have not wavered from their essential decency.

Latest case in point: Abu Ghraib.

Mansuri’s advice: Let it all out.

“If I’m someone sitting outside and looking at America and [the media] and what Americans are saying, I see ... you’re coming into the public square and showing outrage. I don’t care what price we pay for showing [the scandal] out there. I’m confident that once everything is out in the open, the freedom will allow us to really, truly show ourselves for who we are.”

That sends a powerful statement to the rest of the world, he says. “It wasn’t just President Bush saying we’re not like this; it was a genuine feeling of showing who we actually are.”

Mansuri’s visibility has secured him seats at national seminars and panel discussions regarding religion and Islam in America. In addition, he says, the State Department has directed foreigners to his center in Orange County.

It is that outrage and genuine contempt for the abuse, he says, that would allow him to sit with Muslims anywhere in the world, even family members of those mistreated in Abu Ghraib, and talk. “I feel strongly that those we have hurt, I can look them in the eyes and say, ‘Yes, we have caused pain, but here is who we are.’ ”

Mansuri laughs when I ask if he’s an apologist for America. “People sometimes say I criticize too much,” he says.

Yet even when his adopted country disappoints him, Mansuri remains sure of one thing: His father was right about America.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.