The Firemen of Gainesville

Members of the church are being invited to throw copies of the Koran  into a fire. It is in remembrance of the victims, the church claims, and to show that Islam is ‘of the devil’. 

Florida pastor Terry Jones spoke out in defence of his congregation’s despicable plan to burn copies of the Holy Book, fuming that ‘these are things that, if we don’t stand up now, they can increase.’  The church made headlines when it announced the plans on its Facebook page in July.  Regrettably, the event had received thousands of ‘Like’ recommendations by users of the social networking site. 

Jones,who has written a book or rag rather, titled ‘Islam is of The Devil’ and sells T-shirts bearing the same message, barks, ‘We have thought about the danger in holding the controversial event, and we realise that whenever we made this step, that this kind of thing could happen. But we feel it’s that important, and the times call for some kind of radical measure in standing up.’

Let us begin by looking at the name of this pastor’s organisation: the Dove World Outreach Center.  Well there is no end to the irony in that name.  The Dove universally symbolises innocence, gentleness, faith, peace and constancy.  In politics, the Dove applies to moderate, peaceful solutions to conflicts as opposed to more aggressive non-pacifist politics of the Hawks.  There is nothing ‘dovish’ about this particular church.

This gross act of bigotry is very ugly, inciting hatred and hysteria.  What’s more, the paranoid notion that all Muslims are terrorists has become a wearingly dull and tedious topic.  My question is has this clown even opened the Holy Koran?  Has he ever seen one?  Is this degenerate ‘pastor’ even literate?  Since this bufoon’s hands are too filthy to touch the sacred book, I will do him the favour of reciting a fundamental verse:

‘Whoever kills a person … it is as though he has killed all mankind.’ (Holy Koran 5:32).

There is not a single verse in the Koran that endorses terrorism. A ‘radical’ or ‘extremist’ or ‘fundamentalist’ is not a believer, and certainly not a Muslim: according to the letter and spirit of the Koran every Muslim is moderate.  On the other hand, ‘radical’ ‘extremist’ and ‘fundamentalist’ are adjectives one could easily use to refer to you, Mr. Pastor. It is interesting that although Islamophobes like this goon seem to be obsessed with ripping Koranic verses out of their context, they are unable to cite a single verse that explicitly, specifically authorises terrorism, and they ignore the fact that traditional Islam has always regarded terrorism as an evil.

You need to educate yourself Mr. Pastor, and no, not about Islam, but about Christianity.  Christians worship one god, the omniscient, omnipotent Creator, the same god Muslims worship.  Christians are respectful and tolerant of other religions.  Today, we live in an age of tolerance, where moral relativism is touted as the supreme virtue.  Every philosophy, idea, and faith system has equal merit, and is worthy of respect. Those who belittle one faith system over another are narrow-minded, unenlightened, and bigoted, like you Mr. Pastor. 

The worst part of this tragic-comedy is the fact that a church is sponsoring this medieval act of barbarism.  I would think that Christians would be more infuriated than Muslims about this tragic pronouncement, this call to war really.  How can Christians allow this raving mad lunatic to destroy the image of a church, a holy house of god, a place of worship, to host such a despicable act?   

There are few things uglier than burning books. We can call to mind things like the Nazis staging bonfires of literary and academic books.  The most infamous moments in the history of ecclesiastical book-burnings were in the 13th and 16th centuries, when church officials condemned the Talmud as heretical and consigned it to the flames.      

Such displays of fear and loathing may get headlines, but they distract us from the very real fact that so-called ‘Islamic’ terrorists typically victimise innocent Muslims.  Muslims also died in the Twin Towers attack -- in fact, at least 59 Muslims were murdered by the terrorists on 9-11, a grim tally greater than the number of pseudo-Islamic conspirators behind the attack.  

Since 9-11, most ‘Islamic’ terrorist attacks have targeted Muslims, such as the recent bombing of the shrine of a Muslim saint in Pakistan. Likewise, Muslim clerics and organisations have, repeatedly  condemned terrorism as contrary to Islam. A recent  example is Sheikh Tahir ul-Qadri’s issuing of a 600-page fatwa demolishing the ideology of Al-Qaeda and other terrorists through its examination of the Koran and other sources of Islamic theology and jurisprudence.

The activities of hate-mongering Muslim-bashers and pseudo-Muslim terrorists feed off each other.  Likewise, all people who stand for moderation and tolerance -- whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or secular -- should take a united stand against fanaticism and fascism, wherever it appears.

As a Muslim it would be easy to get all riled up over this flagrant disrespect for our noble faith.  But in all honesty I cannot really muster up too much indignation -- because the entire farce is comical, conjuring up images of Klu Klux Klan cone-heads dancing around a bonfire. What is this said Pastor going to do next: tie a noose around a tree?  Lynching Muslims?  The whole thing smells more like racism to me. 

The Qur’an, like the Bible, is a gift.  If you choose to burn it rather than read it, it is your loss.  God has assured us that He has his own way of dealing with people who choose to disrespect His Message.  I will leave that to Him.