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Oct. 15, 2002
It appears that some Christian
leaders missed some important lessons from the teachings of Jesus
Christ (peace be on him). Recent hate mongering remarks by Frank
Graham, Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell against Islam and
Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) reflect ignorance, arrogance,
self-conceit and bigotry. They need to hang the Ten Commandments
around their necks and recite "Love Thy Neighbor"
hundred times a day. They also need to read the following daily:
Matthew 5:9:"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called
sons of God."
James 3:18:"Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of
righteousness."
 | Will the Muslims of the world be able to control and
marginalize extremists and hate mongers among them? |
| Will the Christians, Jews, Hindus,... of the world be able to
control and marginalize extremists and hate mongers among them? |
Some editorials follow:
CHRISTIAN LEADERS' REMARKS AGAINST ISLAM SPARK BACKLASH
Alan Cooperman, Washington Post, 10/15/02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25654-2002Oct14.html
A recent series of disparaging remarks about Islam by the Rev. Jerry
Falwell and other evangelical Christian leaders have sparked riots in
India, helped religious parties win elections in Pakistan and undermined
public sympathy in Islamic countries for the U.S. war on terrorism,
experts said yesterday…
"Jerry Falwell makes a statement, he pleases his constituents, then
he says he's sorry and apparently thinks that's the end of it,"
said Akbar Ahmed, chairman of Islamic studies at American University.
"What Americans don't realize is that remarks like this are flashed
all over the Muslim world, and they are doing very serious damage to
U.S. interests..."
Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush visited a
mosque and said the U.S. war on terrorism was not a war against Islam,
which he called a "religion of peace." Bush's approach quieted
the evangelical community for a few months, but "it wasn't very
long before I began to pick up rumblings in the grass roots -- sermons
saying not all religions are equally correct, evangelicals saying the
president may have gone a little too far," said John Green, a
professor at the University of Akron who closely follows the Christian
right.
"Once some prominent people stepped forward, like Franklin Graham,
that made it easier for others," Green added. "I suspect that
it's just become more and more acceptable for evangelical leaders to
speak out against Islam…"
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EDITORIAL: HERE'S ANOTHER FINE MESS YOU'VE GOTTEN INTO JERRY FALWELL
Elizabeth Schuett, Cox News, 10/14/02
GIBSONBURG, Ohio - There will be a moment's silence from the Rev. Jerry
Falwell, preacher, leading member of the Southern Baptist Convention,
and spokesperson for America's Moral Majority, while he recovers from
his most recent bout of foot-in-mouth disease _ "I think Muhammad
was a terrorist. . . a violent man, a man of war."
Such a pronouncement could have gone relatively unnoticed had the Rev.
chosen another venue from which to out Islam's prophet as a killer.
Possibly, he could have gotten away with it from the pulpit, or even in
a classroom at his Liberty University. Maybe. But to call the holy man
of millions a "terrorist" on national television was not, by
any stretch of the imagination, a swift move. Did Mr. Falwell think no
one would be listening? That no one might take exception to his sweeping
condemnation? Or did he expect to be the instrument of enlightenment for
millions…?
Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations commented:
"Anybody is free to be a bigot if they want to. What concerns us is
the lack of reaction by mainstream religious and political leaders who
say nothing when these bigots voice these attacks."
Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said only an ignorant person
would make such a remark and urged Muslims not to take the matter too
seriously. "I'm not going to accuse all Christians," he said,
"only one person made such a statement…"
America loves its comics. Always has. But religion doesn't belong in the
funnies. Between Mr. Falwell's thoughtless repartee, and televangelist
Pat Robertson's appearance on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes,"
where he called the Prophet Muhammad an "absolute fanatic," as
well as a robber and a brigand, we've got a regular Laurel and Hardy
sketch going here…
Thanks a lot, gentlemen, you've been a big help _ to God and country.
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EDITORIAL: IN DEFENCE OF ISLAM
Ottawa Citizen, 10/15/02
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/editorials/story.asp?id={EDC8EB8F-69B0-4102-9AEB-9AEEAEB6CFA5}
In the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, God orders the death of everyone
who stands in the way of his chosen people, the Israelites. Accordingly,
Joshua sends his army rampaging across the Promised Land, "utterly
destroying all the souls that were therein…"
Sacred texts can be inspiring, dramatic and even revelatory, but they
are not always models of religious tolerance. Like all great literature,
these documents are rich with contradiction and complexity. We can be
exhorted to slaughter infidels on one page and to love our neighbour on
the next. Those with a true spiritual calling are sensitive to the
ambiguities and tensions inherent in Scripture and will spend a lifetime
studying them.
There is, then, a certain dishonesty about the current campaign to
discredit the Koran, Islam's holy book. Robert Spencer, a Catholic
intellectual, has just published Islam Unveiled, a nasty work filled
with damning quotations from the Koran such as "When you meet the
unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads and, when you
have laid them low, bind your captives firmly." The American
baptist leader Jerry Falwell recently said on CBS-TV's 60 Minutes that
the Koran's author, Mohammed, "was a terrorist" and the
religion he founded "teaches hate."
In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, there were decent folk
who, ignorant of religion, wanted to know if Islam was inherently a
primitive, violent creed. Books on Islam were in great demand, and as
people read them they learned, perhaps to their surprise, that Islamic
societies were once more enlightened than Europe. Muslim women owned
property and enjoyed more dignity than their counterparts in the West.
Minorities who faced persecution in Christian lands often fled to the
Islamic world because they knew that among Muslims they'd be
unmolested…
(Editorials texts taken from C.A.I.R.'s emails: http://cair-net.org
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