Burn A Koran Day

-
A few years ago 19 men hijacked a number of aircraft in US airspace and deliberately crashed them into a number of targets. There must have been a number of people working behind the scenes to enable this dreadful event. Maybe 50 people in total? From that dreadful day we have seen a wave of hatred for Islam fuelled by a desire for revenge coupled with ignorance about what Islam actually is. How many have died, have suffered because of the response of the 'West' to the events on September the 11th?

On September the 11th this year pastor Terry Jones from the Dove World Outreach Centre plans for his church to hold a 'Burn A Koran Day' to send a message to 'the radical element of Islam'. His church has about 50 people in their congregation. How much hatred and desire for revenge will be ignited by his event as the message is picked up by Muslims throughout the world who will not distinguish between the views of this pastor and the 'Christian West'?

In the book of Matthew Jesus clearly calls us to be peacemakers.
Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 
His call is to be peacemakers. Not peacekeepers. Not warmongerers. Not vengeful.

Jesus doesn't call us to be stupid either. Obviously the message isn't getting through.

Related articles by Zemanta

Comments

  1. jameshigham24 June 2013 at 20:19

    I'm uneasy about this. Much as I have posted recently on the Koran and Mohammed, I wouldn't participate in burning either, otherwise I'm no better than them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris Hall24 June 2013 at 20:19

    There's debate and opposition, and then there's incitement. Unfortunately those receiving the retribution won't be Jones and his flock.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve Hayes24 June 2013 at 20:19

    It just goes to show that hatred begets hatred, and it will go on escalating until real Christians put a stop to it. Vengeful Christians burn the Koran, which may provoke move vengeful Muslims to behead some Christians, which will provoke more vengeful Christians to drop bombs on more Muslim wedding celebrations, and so it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chris Hall24 June 2013 at 20:19

    There's a wise response to this from Pastor Sam Lee at http://is.gd/f27kL

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yewtree24 June 2013 at 20:19

    I agree, burning the Quran is an ugly thing to do.

    But I have to ask, why do you not give Islam and Muslims the courtesy of a capital letter? Of course it may have been a typo, but you did it twice, so maybe it's not.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chris Hall24 June 2013 at 20:19

    Do you know I was typing away and realised I hadn't capitalised those words. It did register but I suppose I was lazy. Then when Steve posted it noticed it again. Now you've posted about it so I've tidied things up and given courtesy where it's due.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Spammers, trolls and blatantly offensive posts will be summarily deleted. My blog, my rules. Otherwise comment away!

Popular posts from this blog

Sound familiar?

-
Image
Watching the BBC interview of Adele by Graham Norton tonight and Adele sang one of the new tracks off her forthcoming album. The track was called A Million Years Ago. Listening to it reminded me of a different song by someone else. You know where you almost recognise a tune but get lost with the words, yet it's the words which are the key! Eventually it came to me, El Shaddai by Michael Card, famously sung by Amy Grant. It's a song that I occasionally play during worship. Have a listen. What do you think?
Read more

The Archbishop and Wonga

-
Image
Image via CrunchBase Have to say I was initially chuffed to see the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby laying down a challenge to Wonga and others of their ilk. The AoC communicated that he wanted to see the payday loan industry driven out of business by promoting the use of credit unions. The payday loan industry is involved in outright usury which is condemned by many faiths such as Islam and Christianity and others. Usury we can look upon as the lending of money at exorbitant rates of interest. But then I thought what was the AoC actually saying? He wanted to replace excessive usury with not so excessive usury. Is that what we should be aiming for? Plus the architects of our current austerity are backing the AoC! I would love to see all of the credit industry driven out of business but it will only be done by paying workers a decent wage, sharing in the profit of their labour and making capitalism history. At the end of the day this sort of initiative is just a...
Read more