MUSLIMS WILL NOT BURN THE BIBLE

Because no Muslim having gone through this 30-days long spiritual cleansing, honestly struggling to observe the rules, is expected to come out empty handed,  witnessing the end of the fasting period is considered a victory in itself and the period is marked by a festival known as Eidel-Fitri. The activities of this day are self-explanatory; […]

Because no Muslim having gone through this 30-days long spiritual cleansing, honestly struggling to observe the rules, is expected to come out empty handed,  witnessing the end of the fasting period is considered a victory in itself and the period is marked by a festival known as Eidel-Fitri. The activities of this day are self-explanatory; Muslims dress in beautiful clothes, attend a special open air congregational prayer, exchange gifts and visits and treat themselves to special meals.

The second reason for celebrations by Muslims this week is less conspicuous. It is connected with the activities of a small-town, small-time, attention seeking individual called Pastor Terry Jones of Florida.  

If the demented American hate preacher popularly known as Pastor Jones, knew the favour he would be doing to Islam by threatening to burn copies of the Holy Qur’an on September 11, he probably would have opted to die instead. In physical appearance, Jones personifies bitterness in all its repulsive details. But that is not important except that it helps to shed some light on his brand of madness or meanness or both. Looking at him, Pastor Jones comes across as someone who has failed in every aspect of life; bitter, disenchanted and feeling let down by normal society, preaching hate in the name of Christianity conceivably offers Jones the last avenue to vent his frustrations, with the burning of the Qur’an as the ultimate passage to some kind of success in a lifetime of failures.

Last Thursday, after weeks of defiant bravado, Jones capitulated and announced that he had changed his mind and that he and his 50 followers were no longer going to burn copies of the Holy Qur’an, which for Muslims, is the most exalted book in the world. Apparently, Jones had buckled under the barrage of attacks and condemnation he received from his fellow Christians in the USA and beyond. Humiliated and rejected, Jones is now desperately struggling to find a face-saving compromise by trying to link his capitulation not to burn the Qur’an with the controversy surrounding the building of an Islamic Centre in New York, USA.

For the record, the controversy surrounding the Islamic Centre in New York started when a community of Muslims in New York purchased a piece of land three blocks away from Ground Zero (which used to be the site of the Twin Towers that were bombed by the September 11 terrorists attacks in 2001) in order to build an Islamic Centre that includes a Mosque, a school, recreation centre etc. In reaction to that, some relatives of those who lost their lives in that terrorist attacks expressed concern that locating the centre so close to the scene of their grief would open their wounds as it would bring back memories of their loved ones since all those identified as responsible for the bombing claimed to be Muslims. This presented quite a dilemma: on the one hand the Muslims have committed no offence or broken any law and are entitled to site their place of warship where they choose so long as it does not contravene the city’s master plan. On the other hand, the relatives of the 911 victims have a genuine concern that is worthy of consideration (but not as a response to Jones’s barbarous demands).

It was while the Muslim leaders in New York and other stakeholders in the project were engaging themselves and trying to find the best way to resolve this dilemma that Pastor Jones came up with his Barbarian-era threat of burning the Holy Qur’an. It is significant that until he capitulated, at no time did Jones link his mad scheme to the building of the Islamic Centre in New York. Between last Thursday night and Friday morning, Jones had changed his position at least three times.

Thursday evening he said he was determined to burn the Qur’an; by night he said he’d cancelled the idea; by Friday morning he changed his mind again saying, instead that he’d only put the plan “on hold”. By Sunday only God knows what he would be telling his scanty group of 50 followers, whose individual views the American media is curiously not reporting.

Anyway, whatever decision Jones eventually comes up with would not be the second reason why Muslims should celebrate this week. The reason why Muslims all over the world should celebrate is that throughout this dangerous act of provocation, no-Muslim group or individual had contemplated burning the Christian Holy book, the Bible; or breaking the Cross or indeed, desecrating any symbol of Christian religious worship. Even in Afghanistan where, expectedly, there were protests, the protesters restricted their anger to burning of the American flag.

There are times when the only honourable thing to do is to admit our bias towards certain things, and unconditionally grant others the right to exercise their own preferences in matters that are essentially personal. Nothing is more personal than Faith, otherwise known as religion or religious belief. In this respect, the reaction of Muslims to this heinous act of provocation by this maniac masquerading as a pastor is worthy of a celebration. Not too long ago in Nigeria, a situation like Jones had generated would have ignited reactions with deadly consequences in different parts of the country.

It is an act of self-discipline that Muslims in Nigeria and elsewhere should build upon; by his actions, Jones is inadvertently admitting that he has no arguments to counter the Divine Message of the Holy Qur’an. It is of course no use pointing out to him that even if he is able to gather all the copies of the Holy Qur’an in the world and set them ablaze, within hours, there would be twice that number in circulation because there are as many copies of the Qur’an as there are Muslims (of all ages, races and gender) who have committed it to memory!

Having said that it is equally important to point out to President Barrack Obama that although he supported the New York Muslims in the Islamic Centre controversy, the reasons he gave for condemning Jones’ action is disturbing, to say the least. First the Pentagon David Petreus, the US top commander in Afghanistan, were quoted as saying that Jones’ action was likely to endanger the lives of American troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere; then later, Obama was quoted as saying that the image of Jones burning the Qur’an would provide “a recruitment bonanza” for the Taliban.True. But American policy of double standard in the Middle East is another—and deadlier— recruitment bonanza for the Taliban and other terrorist groups around the world. Obama couldn’t have failed to realize that last July, the very week that Israel bombed a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza, killing about 20 Turkish nationals, was the same week that Obama succeeded in pushing through a United Nations additional sanctions against Iran for daring to enrich uranium which it has consistently maintained is for peaceful purposes. The UN did not even debate the Israeli action.

Consequently, some of us cannot help but wonder: If Jones’ action did not endanger the lives of American troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere, he would have gotten away with it under the right to be barbaric.