Who Hates Whom?
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St Cloud , Minnesota
Burning the Holy Book of any religion would be an act of supreme sacrilege particularly for Muslims given that their values demand that they show respect for all scriptures. But in modern America disrespecting the Qur’an has become a favorite tool for the extremist fundamentalists as a way of waging war on Islam.
Maligning Islam in this manner is not something new that modern Americans have invented. In fact, history is replete with similar attacks since Islam first appeared on the global horizon.
Among the most recent incident of a satanic act of this nature was the burning of the Holy Qur’an by the Pastor of an obscure church, Terry Jones.
In a mind-boggling drama, incredulous to most, he put the scripture on trial in front of his thirty congregants and found it guilty of terrorism. The proper penalty was to torch the Qur’an, which he did. According to him this is what Jesus would have done.
The burning of the Qur’an, together mosques, is now a standard procedure for expressing hatred towards Muslims in this the most democratic of all countries. It is also the country where the founding fathers crafted an ingenious political system based on respect and equality for all.
Most surprising of all, it is a nation where one of the founders of the republic and the author of the Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson, bought and kept a copy of the Qur’an for his legal studies.
That Qur’an was used by Congressman Keith Ellison for his swearing-in ceremony when he was elected to the U . House of Representatives in 2006.
It is alleged by extremists that the First Amendment does not apply to Muslims. Therefore, demonizing them, as Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, General Boykin and Robert Spencer have done, is perfectly justifiable.
Many extremists believe that Muslims must be hounded until the day they pack up and leave. America is for the white Christians only, and not for any others. This charade was dramatized recently by a video (Unwelcome) on CNN, and by Congressman Peter King’s hearings.
These devilish impulses are expressed by many Congresspersons, most Republicans, and almost all the Tea Partiers.
During the expulsion of the Muslims from Spain bonfires were commonly lit to burn Islamic books, including the Holy Qur’an. Sad to say the Catholic Church directed these tragic acts all over the country.
In Bosnia too, Serbs were inspired by the Orthodox Church to torch the main library in Sarajevo. It burned for days and the Muslim world looked on as valuable documents, including the Qur’an s in many languages turned to ashes.
Those Qur’ans were from the earliest times, perhaps eighth or ninth centuries, handwritten in Arabic. Wherever and whenever Muslims were defeated the desecration of the Qur’an was the supreme penalty, the ultimate indignity.
Fortunately, some Muslims carry the Qur’an in their hearts making the memorization of the Holy Book essential for Muslims.
Many Muslim countries condemned the cultish act of Terry Jones. In Afghanistan it got out of hand and now some people understand the true purpose of NATO in that land. Turkey and Pakistan protested openly and let their views be known to the American authorities. In neither place, nor anywhere else, was the Bible burned. For Muslims the Bible also is a revealed scripture.
It is not known whether any of the political leaders in America condemned Terry Jones’ cultish drama. None of the Republican presidential aspirants did.
The Republican President George Bush raised the question: “Why do they hate us?” Of course, by “they” he meant Muslims, and by “us” Christians. He should pose that question to Pope Urban II, the organizer of the Crusades, Terry Jones, destroyer of Qur’an, or the community of Murfreesboro, for vandalizing of the mosque, or better yet, the congregation in his own church.
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