Madness

So it has come to this.  Some fool who calls himself a Christian pastor is planning to burn copies of the Qur'an on September 11, thinking that this act of desecration is an appropriate way to mark that dolorous anniversary.  Anti-Muslim hysteria has gotten completely out of control in this country, stoked by cynical politicians pandering to the basest instincts of the American public, to their fear, and to their ignorance.  I don't expect many Americans to embrace Islam.  For most of us it isn't our faith tradition.  It isn't the religion within which most Americans find their connection with God.  Fair enough.  It isn't my faith tradition either.  But is it too much to expect people to become informed about a subject before they shoot off their mouths about it in public?  Is it too much to expect people to consider how an unfair attack on Islam will be received in the Islamic world, a world already filled with more than enough tension and more than enough reason to be suspicious of American motives?

The anti-Muslim hysteria that is being stirred up today relies upon the palpably false assertion that the September 11 attacks accurately reflect the teachings of Islam.  That they do not is apparent to anyone who expends even a modicum of effort to learn what Islam really is.  There are things about Islam that we can legitimately question.  The Prophet Mohammad was, among other things, a military leader; and he did not categorically reject violence the way Jesus did.  Rather, he approved the defensive use of force in the cause of justice, much as Christian just war doctrine has done since the early fifth century.  His teaching, like Christian just war doctrine, prohibits causing the death of innocent noncombatants.  Today's Islamist terrorists violate that teaching with abandon.  Islam strictly prohibits suicide, another teaching the terrorists have ignored as they lure gullible and desperate people into acts of suicide with the specious promise of a reward in paradise.  Islam did not commit the atrocities of September 11.  Terrorists did.  Why is that so hard for Americans to understand?

There is a movement under way to have Christian pastors read from the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, during worship on Sunday, September 12.  I intend to do so.  Sura 1, the very beginning of the Qur'an, is an appropriate reading.  There are many others.  I urge my pastoral colleagues to find something of value in Islam's holy scripture to read on September 12 as an act of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters and an act of defiance toward all the purveyors of hatred who are so vocal among us today, especially those masquerading as Christian clergy.