From a small right-wing church in Florida, there has gone out a call to burn copies of the Quran on September 11. Instead of being ignored as clearly cuckoo, this call won national media coverage.
As the German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote almost two centuries ago, "Those who begin by burning books will end by burning people." The theater piece for which he wrote those words, called "Almansor," was addressing the Inquisition's burning of the Quran. In 1933, university students in Heine's own beloved homeland burned his books, along with many others. They burned people soon after.
Many American religious communities and organizations, as well as secular groups like Common Cause, have condemned this call for burning. The road to burning people is by no means so open here, now, as it was in Germany in 1933.
But still, we need to face the question: How did we get to the point where some Americans would burn a sacred book, and many more oppose the building of a sacred mosque in their own town--not only in Lower Manhattan, but in many other neighborhoods?
It would be easy to start with the aftermath of the terror attacks against the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. But hostility and ignorance of Christians toward Islam goes back centuries earlier. And the hostility of Jews toward Islam, on top of the ignorance of almost all European and American Jews about Islam, goes back at least to 1948.
Step 1: The Old Hostilities
There are perverse and paradoxical spiritual roots to the hostility between Islam and Christianity. All the great religious traditions--not only those we call monotheist, but Hinduism and Buddhism and Shinto and Wicca and for that matter what we call "secular" traditions like socialism and liberalism --are rooted in the profound effort to make loving contact with the ONE. One God, one historical dialectic, one Web of life in soul and body on our planet--ONE.
Once a community has begun to reach out toward the ONE, it begins to create the metaphors, the rituals, the languages, the practices in daily life, the festivals to embody this searching toward the ONE. And then the community bumps into another community that also claims it is in contact with the ONE, and has its own quite different set of metaphors, rituals, languages, and daily practices, with which to make this contact real.
There are often two responses to this discovery:
One is to say with surprise and delight, "You have shaped a different path from ours! Of course there must be many ways of lighting up the Infinite, unfolding truth. How could the great Infinity reveal itself except through sacred diversity? Let us learn from each other!"
The other response is to say: "We have unearthed the one way to the ONE, and any other path must be a false one. And worse than false--since you claim falsely to have made contact with the ONE, you must be lying. Corrupt. Deceitful. Worth killing."
In the various British colonies that became the United States, this bitterly hostile response was embodied in the persecution of one or another faith community (e.g. Quakers, Jews, Roman Catholics), by one or another of the original colonial governments. The uncertainty of who might get persecuted in the nation as a whole was one of the factors leading to adoption of the First Amendment, and much of the hostile reaction was then muted by the existence of the First Amendment. If no religion could wield state power and violence against another, this reaction was less likely.
Native American religions and Mormonism did not "count" in this context; state power or pressure was used against these religious communities. And there was public pressure in the 19th century against Roman Catholicism, and in the 20th century against the "Nation of Islam" (a racially focused variant not accepted by any other Muslims as truly Islamic).
Step 2: The 9/11 Attack
Until 2001 in America, both hostility and interfaith exploration were quiescent, in regard to classical Islam. Then a tiny proportion of the more than one billion Muslims of the world, claiming they were acting on behalf of Islam and God, murdered about 3000 people.
Again, there were two responses:
There was a wave of rage against Muslims and anyone who looked as if he might be Muslim. Some were attacked, a few were killed. Officials arrested hundreds of Muslims out of fear, almost always utterly unjustified, that they were would-be terrorists. Some of them were held for months without access to families or attorneys.
And during the same weeks and months, some Americans-- often religiously motivated Christians and Jews--rallied to protect Muslims and their mosques. Some stood guard to prevent attacks, some created vigils, some brought together Jews, Christians, and Muslims under " The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah."
Step 3: The Wars with Islam
Soon after, the government of the United States began wars against two Muslim-majority nations. It quickly became clear that what began under the banner of "liberation" actually became conquest and occupation. Yet the wars dragged on, bringing death to thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians. And meanwhile, there were deadly US military attacks on Pakistanis, threats of war against Iran, and a continuing close alliance with the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
There is a process that researchers in psychology have uncovered and call "cognitive dissonance." People who begin with one opinion but act in a way contrary to that opinion change their ideas more than their behavior. After almost a decade of American wars against a number of Muslim-majority societies, and several actual murderous attacks by self-proclaimed Muslims against civilians in various countries allied to America, some Americans who had begun with few opinions about Islam in general began to view it with anger and disgust:
"If we are killing lots of them and they are killing some of us, there must be something evil about them."
Step 4: The Great Slump
Meanwhile, Americans experienced a disastrous economic slump. The last time that rates of disemployment and of home foreclosure had been this high, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, one of the reactions was a great wave of anti-Semitism across America. Father Coughlin on radio, Henry Ford through the Dearborn Independent, were reaching millions of Americans with fear and hatred of the Jews.
So now, in another time of economic trauma -- and now also of unwinnable wars and a deep sense of cultural dislocation -- there was seething not quite visible below the surface of American culture and society a current of xenophobia. Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal, became suspect. And Muslims.
Step 5: Crystals of Bigotry
And then into this hyper-saturated solution of fear, suspicion, and hatred came some who chose deliberately to drop the poisonous crystals of bigotry .
In December 2009, the New York Times--a liberal leader of opinion--and Laura Ingraham--a conservative leader of opinion-- carried articles and interviews about plans of American Muslims to establish Cordoba House, a community cultural center in Lower Manhattan. There was no fuss, no fury.
Not till May 2010 did the ultra-right-wing anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller and organs of Rupert Murdoch, the right-wing publisher who later gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, begin to carry inflammatory stories about what they call the "Ground Zero Mega-Mosque."
And then, step-by-step, the crystal they sowed precipitated the super-saturated solution into a noxious brew. Right-wing blogs and talk-radio programs described the Cordova House as an insult to the dead of 9/11, a triumphal celebration by Islam of its victory in the attacks on the World Trade Center's, anything to arouse fear and hatred of Islam.
Even Jewish organizations that claimed their mission was to prevent "defamation" not only of Jews but of all religious and ethnic groups, or claimed their mission was to promote "tolerance," spoke out against the planning for Cordova House. "Yes," they said, "Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan have every constitutional right to place their mosque or cultural center two long long New York City blocks from Ground Zero, but it is not ethically right or spiritually wise to do so. It would offend the sensibilities of the survivors of the 9/11 dead."
These assertions ignored both an important fact and a crucial principle. The fact was that hundreds of 9/11 survivors, in the organization called September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, had endorsed the placement of Córdoba House. The principle was that the constitutional right of freedom of religion has no reality if a wave of hostility from "private" citizens, sparked by great media empires and backed up by public officials, can prevent the fully legal placement of a house of worship.
Why then did the right wing media and right-wing politicians like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich decide to light this conflagration? The spark would not have lit a fire if that there had not been gallons of gasoline beneath the surface, but why light the spark?
I think the answer is that the right wing was and still is hoping to split the vote of progressive Americans by using not just Cordoba House but also broader fear of Islam as a wedge issue, just as they used the issue of gay marriage--which now has little bite. They have used the fear of Hispanic immigrants in the same way.
Fanning fear and hatred of Islam has one major advantage over firing up fear of gay people or of Hispanics: it may offer the possibility of splitting the Jewish vote, which is, next to the vote of African-Americans, the most progressive voting bloc in the country.
Indeed, many Jews, outraged by attacks on Israel that are sponsored by two Muslim organizations--Hezbollah and Hamas--and by Holocaust denials from some leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, may be susceptible to an Islamophobic campaign. At the same time, of all American communities, Jews are perhaps the most likely to smell and taste the danger of bigotry against a religious minority.
So the American Jewish community is one of the crucial arenas of struggle over whether burning the Quran becomes a step on the path that Heinrich Heine prophesied toward burning people.
Out of this witches' brew of dark past and explosive present, there emerged not only bigotry but another wave of interfaith engagement. Those of many religious and ethical communities gathered to condemn the burning of the Quran and to affirm all sacred texts, all sacred gathering places.
The path America will take is still uncertain.
As for the Jews: Let us hope that a story from my own childhood echoes so strongly the memories and sensibilities of other American Jews that overwhelmingly, we will walk the path toward freedom and diversity:
When I was about seven years old (1940), my grandmother interrupted other Jewish women in line at the kosher butcher shop who were talking contemptuously about "the shvartzes" -- that is, Black people. She challenged them: "That's the way they talked about us in Europe. This is America, and we must not talk like that!"
We must not act like that, either.
With blessings of shalom, salaam, peace -- toward a Labor Day that reminds us that the disemployed need decent jobs at decent pay with decent hours free to rest and celebrate; toward a Rosh Hashanah that ushers in the sweetness of a New Year of good action; toward an Eid El-Fitr that celebrates both the abundance and the self-restraint God gives us in our relationship with earth.
-- Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Shalom Center
http://www.theshalomcenter.org
Omid Safi: Eid Mubarak: Blessed Holiday, Service to Humanity
Church plans Quran-burning event - CNN
Christ was not crucified by non believers was he? For Christ was no threat to non-believers right? It was the ones who called themselves believers, of God only. Those believers called Christ a blasphemer of God, a demon, a enemy (ter*oist) of God, those believers, falsely accused Christ, spit on him, greatly persecuted Christ right? For Christ disturbed, threaten men of greed, men of great wealth, power, the Empire status quo who ruled by military oppression, no different then today, greed?
Christ said, My Fathers house is a House of Prayer not a den of thieves. I will destroy this temple in 3 days and in 3 days I Will rebuild it.
Christ was teaching his listeners, that the real Divine Authority, has been placed understanding , within each heart to know right from wrong. We need no one to teach us, just ask God, God said You do not ask me, seek me, nor knock at my door.
Christ was teaching liberation, Christ said, I came to take you out of bondage, now you want to go back into bondage?
Neither blacks, nor Jews did anything to deserve the negative feelings/actions against them. Not so with Islam today. Murder, mass rape, pillaging, torture and genocide is a way of life in Sudan for Muslims. Where is the press???????
Muslim men kill their daughters, wives, sisters and call it honor.
Mothers hold their daughters down so their genitalia can be ripped apart. Not one or two, here or there- THOUSANDS. Not just in Africa- in the UK!!
Muslim men throw acid on the face and body of any inconvenient woman- have you seen the pictures? You really should. It is important to see what will become of the women in the world when Sharia takes over.
Everyone else can be held up to ridicule, not so Islam and Mohammad- they kill cartoonists for that.
The irony is, that Islam doesnt hide its intentions. Yes, there are moderate Muslims- there is no moderate Islam.
Well God already told us, God said. You forgot, the First Earth I destroyed by a flood, (only 1 family, who were faithful to God in all things, were saved). This time God said: the second earth -I Will- destroy by Fire. That means all us.
Those waiting for the rapture, those who think they are so self righteous, think again. Christ said In the end of times, it will be like in Noah's time, well in Noah's time, 1 family only was saved.
If Moses a faithful man of God, was punished for his one sin, and Christ, of NO sin, son of God suffered so much persecution, was crucified, think again all who boast holier then thou. I ask Woe? When God's justice comes upon all? God said I WILL? Vengence is Mine said the Lord, not yours.
http://tiny.cc/wsbmb
After defeating their rivals in Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, Muslim extremists are focusing their attacks on Christians in Gaza City. Christians in Gaza City have issued an appeal to the international community and a plea for protection against the increased attacks by Muslim extremists.
Father Manuel Musallem, head of Gaza's Latin church, told the AP that Muslims have ransacked, burned and looted a school and convent that are part of the Gaza Strip's small Romany Catholic community. He told the AP that crosses were broken, damage was done to a statue of Jesus, and at the Rosary Sister School and nearby convent, prayer books were burned.
Gunmen used the roof of the school during the fighting, and the convent was "desecrated," Mussalem told the AP.
"Nothing happens by mistake these days," he said.
Father Musalam additionally told The Jerusalem Post that the Muslim gunmen used rocket-propeled grenades (RPGs) to blow through the doors of the church and school, before burning Bibles and destroying every cross they could get their hands on.
One young woman told the Catholic News Service that she was concerned the Islamic extremists would "enforce a strict dress code, forcing women to wear veils and robes." One Christian teenager spoke to the Catholic News Service on the condition that her name not be used. She said the days of fighting had been "very difficult" but they were "OK now."
Yes, there are moderate Muslims- there is no moderate Islam.
Wake up and live in the reality being forced upon you.
Europe is no longer european. The Brits have rolled over in the name of democracy and will soon be a minority in their own country. I know you are shaking your head and calling me a fanatic. What I want to know is how long you think 1776 values will last you in 2010.
Do you think they asked Daniel Pearl what he thought of a mosque on ground zero before they slit his throat?
Why dont you watch the video tape? I believe the last question they asked him was "Are you a Jew?" No matter that he didnt think of himself that way and was very enlightened and tolerant. They tore off his neck anyway.
We are not living in any other time than now. We are not dealing with a poor minority being persecuted for different skin or eating habits.
Like Yoni Netanyahu said, "When someone says they want to destroy you, believe them."
People are people, and the sooner we get to the point where they can see each other that way, instead of affixing labels to themselves and each other, on account of ethnicity, nationality, religion, so forth and so on, the sooner we'll be able to get on with our lives and get down to what America's all about: Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. But, as long as people are still on some kind of faith-based social tirade, all's not well.
Personally I liked the idea of people going and attending the book-burning, and bringing along their Own, Personal, Fire Extinguisher. Pfshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht, and presto! One international faith-based conflagration duly avoided.
Didn't they decide, finally, that the Cordoba house thing was going to be multi-faith? I hope they can make that happen...maybe put the podium on a swivel or something, according to the worship session, to accomodate different beliefs.
Why are they using the moon as their symbol? And also for choosing of the prayer time? And also for their festivities?
In fact, it is the Christian religion that is based on fabrication of facts, ancient Persian and Indian mythologies, and ancient Persian and pagan festivals.
- Al Qaeda and the church in Gainesville are both part of the lunatic fringe.
- Anyone who doesn't renounce this type of behavior condones it.
I agree with you that it is not illegal to burn something that you own - that the Church has the freedom to do so - but I don't think it follows that they shouldn't be condemned for their act.
Remember the problems that resulted from showing an image of the Prophet Muhammed in a Danish newspaper?
Watch what happens when Terry Jones burns Quorans.
Is it worth it: NO!
"Burning a Quoran is offensive to all Muslims, of which the radicals are only a small percentage."
"Remember the problems that resulted from showing an image of the Prophet Muhammed in a Danish newspaper? "
"Watch what happens when Terry Jones burns Quorans."
So are you suggesting that moderate reasonable muslims are going to run amok in a violent rampage over a silly publicity stunt?
Sarah Palin: Don’t feed the fires of intolerance by burning Koran
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Sarah Palin used Facebook Wednesday to send a message to Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters that book burning is always wrong:
Koran Burning Is Insensitive, Unnecessary; Pastor Jones, Please Stand Down
Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.
I would hope that Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters will consider the ramifications of their planned book-burning event. It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don’t feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.
Our nation was founded in part by those fleeing religious persecution. Freedom of religion is integral to our charters of liberty. We don’t need to agree with each other on theological matters, but tolerating each other without unnecessarily provoking strife is how we ensure a civil society. In this as in all things, we should remember the Golden Rule. Isn’t that what the Ground Zero mosque debate has been about?
- Sarah Palin
Yes, both are protected acts under the constitution, but they both have radically different motivations. One represents an extreme of a sect of his religion, the other is representative of a moderate and mainstream group of his religion.
One wants to be in the forefront of a holy war and desires this holy war, the other works for peace and understanding among faiths and cultures.
One is meant as a hostile act while the other's project isn't hostile in the slightest, but could only by the opposite.
The issue would be about the wisdom of such an act. Both are being contemplated against popular opinion. I would suggest that the general underlying reasons for opposing either are rooted very differently.
rest in next post