Mistreating a Holy Book?

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from cnsnews.com, May 15, 2005, with the headline, “Muslims React Violently to Bogus Qur’an Story. 

The violent reaction to an erroneous report alleging that US military interrogators had desecrated the Qur’an underscores the importance of a multi-religious society like America, according to experts on the Christian and Muslim faiths. Newsweek’s May 9th story, retracted on Monday after the magazine’s source and the US government backed away from details, claimed that a copy of the Qur’an had been flushed down a toilet during an interrogation at the US Military Prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Following publication of that original report, deadly anti-American riots broke out in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world. John Esposito, Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University and author of What Everyone Needs To Know About Islam, said Muslims believe the Qur’an is the living, literal word of God. For Muslims, God is present in the Qur’an, and the book is treated as if it’s sacred. 

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, indicated that radical Islamic militants must shoulder much of the blame for the recent violence. Without reprisal, Muslims have recently desecrated churches. ‘Think of the terrorists who holed up in the Church of the Nativity; burned Torahs; think of the Tomb of Joseph, and destroyed Buddhist statues; think of Bamiyan,’ Pipes stated in an e-mail exchange with Cybercast News Service, ‘but even a whisper of disrespect for the sanctities of Islam provokes outrage and even violence. Think of Salman Rushdi's novel The Satanic Verses. Either non-Muslims firmly reject unequal standards, or they will before long find these will dominate their lives,’ Pipes added.”

Tom: I don’t know what to call it, except the insanity that’s out there, the irrationality, you know, as Daniel Pipes points out. I mean, you can think of other examples. They have no problem with bombing a bus full of little children, yet something happens to their so-called sacred book, and they riot - they go crazy. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Dave: There was some abuse of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison there in Iraq. I mean, these guys behead their hostages. Now, the people who were in that prison were violent men, and they were out to kill others, okay? I’m not excusing any abuse - there should not have been - but then when you take innocent civilians off the street who have nothing to do with the war - they are not fighting anybody - and you slit their throats, I mean, you take their heads off. And then if we do….

Tom: Store them in a refrigerator or freezer. What is this?

Dave: And then we abuse somebody, the world is up in arms! It’s not an even standard, and as he says - let me quote what he said at the end: “Either non-Muslims firmly reject unequal standards or they will before long find these will dominate their lives.” This is Daniel Pipes. 

So this is an unequal standard. We let them build mosques by the thousands in the Western world. Those mosques, by the way, mostly are financed by Saudi Arabia. And you had a group recently that went through - I don’t remember how many mosques in the United States, and they found that they were centers for anti-American propaganda, stirring up people to kill Americans. And we let them do that here; you can’t build a non-Muslim place of worship in Saudi Arabia.

Tom: Or carry a Bible on the street.

Dave: That’s right. Now, see, I agree with what Daniel Pipes said: as long as we condone this unequal standard, we are going to be the victims of it. We should say, “Look, guys, we’re not letting you have these freedoms over here until you allow the same freedoms in your country.” I don’t see how you could complain about that. But it’s like we’re walking on eggs - we’re afraid to offend the Muslim.

Tom: Which feeds right into their game plan.

Dave: Exactly. Violent reaction to an erroneous report. And they’re not going to accept the truth anyway. Then this news item was all about - well, you need to have a multi-religious society like America, but it doesn’t help. Multi-religious? What do you mean? There are definite statements in the Qur’an and the teachings and example of Mohammed. For example, every Jew on the face of this earth must be killed. Now, when am I ever going to accept that? How could I say, “Okay, let’s just get along with one another. The Qur’an is a wonderful book, Mohammed’s a great prophet.” 

But he says, “Every Jew must be killed on the face of this earth.” Mohammed also said that Allah commanded him to fight all people until all people confess, “There’s no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” 

Now, how are we going to have a multi-cultural society in America or anywhere when Islam itself - these are not fanatics, these are not extremists; Islam itself says the entire world must come into submission to Allah and to Mohammed as the prophet, to the Qur’an and to Islam. Tom, what are we talking about? A multi-cultural, multi-religious society? What kind of a dream is this? It plays into the hands of the Muslims. They’re determined to take over the world. 

Okay, we would like to win the world to Christ. But how do we do it? We do it with the gospel. God says, “Come now, let’s reason together.” They do it with the sword. And we’ve been over - through this a little bit. My book, I hope, will be out soon - Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations. They spread Islam with the sword from France to China. They killed millions. The takeover of India is called the “bloodiest story in history” by Will Durant and other historians. They killed more just in India than Hitler killed in Germany. Okay? 

So this is a religion which itself, its fundamentals, its basic doctrines say, “We will take over this world and we will do it by force if we have to.” You can’t change that, Tom. You can’t blame it on a few fanatics. Well then, I guess Mohammed was a fanatic. Mohammed must have been a terrorist. Indeed. He did exactly what the terrorists are doing. He slaughtered people if they wouldn’t submit to him as the prophet of Allah. 

So, Tom, I become a little bit impatient. I lose my patience with these people who keep saying this. No, we’re going to have to do what Daniel Pipes says: we’re going to have to stand up to these people. We’re going to have to say, “Enough is enough. We are not giving you freedoms over here so that you can destroy the very freedoms that we give you. You use the freedoms we give you in order to ultimately destroy them, and to force us into submission to Islam. We’re not going to stand for that. We believe in freedom. We believe that every person ought to have the right to choose his own religion.” I’m not pushing anything on anybody. I want to reason with people. I want to point out that the Bible is the word of God. We can prove it, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. There’s no help, there’s no hope otherwise. But I’m not going to force this on anyone. Everyone should have the right to make a choice, because God has given us the power of choice, and you can’t love God unless you do it voluntarily. And this is why there’s no talk about loving God in Islam. Ninety-nine characteristics of god (Allah) and not one of them is love in the Qur’an. 

So, Tom, I hope that we will wake up. We’ve got to wake up. We’ve got to do something about it, and we’ve got to stand for right. You’ve got the International Declaration on Human Rights signed by the United Nations, members of the United Nations who violate those standards every day, and the United Nations does nothing about it. Article 18 says - and Saudi Arabia, these nations signed it - says, “We will allow everyone to chose their own religion, freedom of speech, and so forth.” What kind of a joke is this? They signed it. They violate it every day. Any Muslim who changes his faith in Saudi Arabia, it’s off with his head. You must be a Muslim to be a citizen of Saudi Arabia. I’m sorry, I’m getting on my soap box now. But, Tom, it is very serious, and we better wake up to it.