“Do you have faith? Have it to
yourself before GOD” (Romans 14:22)
“Faith in GOD’s revelation has
nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo” (Karl Barth)
“No human race is superior; no
religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists
make them” (Elie Wiesel)
As a very flawed Born-Again Christian, I find the hate from both sides
of the religious issue of Muslims vs. Christians to be abhorrent. The arrogance of non-Muslims to disrespect a
revered figure of Islam is not only immature; it is a violation of rights accorded
to all sentient beings. The Muslims who
resort to violence are weak pathetic beings who do not have the intelligence to
prove or disprove the stereotypes heaped against them. The non-Muslims who demean the Muslim faith
are no better, especially those who have the audacity to call themselves “Christians”. The word Christian means followers of Christ
and there were many other religions when Jesus Christ walked this Earth yet
there is no mention of Him demeaning any of those other religions in the four
Gospels of the New Testament. Indeed, He oftentimes repudiated the conservative
religious and political leaders of Israel regarding their hypocrisies. Apologies, I digress. We as Christians are taught to be peaceful,
to live in peace and to treat all peoples the same because “in truth, I perceive
that GOD shows no partiality” or more plainly, GOD is no respecter of persons
(Acts 10:34 & Romans 2:11). Specifically, we are told to “love your (our)
enemies” (Matthew 5:44 & Luke 6:27-36).
I found this article[1]
extremely interesting. The perspective that caught my eye was the author's
statement that "People in the Muslim world place a higher value on their
cultural identity, which is often defined by their religion." I find the statement to be less than objective
because if one examines the conservative Christian movement in the U.S.; one
will find the very same. We hear at least once a week some Christian
conservative bemoaning the faux attack on their religious and political
ideologies while violating some of the legal aspects of the Constitution
against certain groups of the citizenry. Conservative Christians place a very
high value on their cultural identity and it is highlighted by the current slew
of presidential hopefuls within the Republican Party. Their hateful rhetoric defiles the Christian
religion and are not representative of the religion just as violent Muslims are
not representative of the religion of Islam.
Having said all of that, the words "respect" and “honor” are
missing from the allowance of Free Speech. Be it in France or in the U.S., the
perpetrators of disrespecting the holy man of the Islamic faith are
predominately Caucasians. I don't know what “certain” White French citizens
hold dear but in the U.S., if someone desecrates the American flag, those
conservative Christians who choose to demean the Prophet Mohammad get violently
upset. They also become violently upset to things that violate their religious
beliefs [same sex marriage]. What gives them the right to be outraged at these
things yet Muslims cannot become outraged at the defilement of their religion’s
holy man? Free speech, as in everything else, [should] have boundaries and only
the ignorant and hatemongers disregard the respect in the freedom allotted to
many. Violence is never the answer or response to anything that inflames our
sensitivity. Violence is the response of the weak, those who feel they have no
control and like naughty little children, they do evil to be noticed. Religion
has always been at the base of the most infamous wars of mankind; whether or
not the religion was/is valid. The Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, the
Catholic/Protestant issue of Ireland and even WWII are just some of the
examples. Those who decry the fact that nonviolent Muslims say nothing forget
that non-conservative Christians say nothing. Here in the U.S. those who say
something against and/or about conservative Christians are demeaned and
ridiculed. So even if nonviolent Muslims come out against the violence
committed by those who have hijacked their religion, the conservative
Christians would denounce such statements and that is what network news report
on which gives conservative Christians a broader platform. Bottom line,
conservative Christians are no different from extremist Muslims except for
their religion and the language they speak. They are both cut from the same
cloth of hubris and hate; their religion is just a vehicle to drive that hate. *Note:
While conservative Christians don’t use violence like extremist Muslims, they
use the laws to subjugate certain groups of the citizenry with violence being a
component.
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