As most of you know by now, there is a congregation in Florida whose pastor is planning a burning of the Qur’an this coming Saturday on the anniversary of September 11. There is no doubt that the pastor has the constitutional right to burn the Qur’an. But, as Saint Paul warns us:
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.
Father Orthoduck had been thinking of writing an article about the burning, but there is a much better statement put out by the Barnabas Aid, a ministry that began in the United Kingdom and works with Christians in places where they are a minority and discriminated against, oppressed, or persecuted for their faith. Here is their statement:
Barnabas Aid statement on the proposed burning of Qur’ans in Florida
A church in Gainsville, Florida, USA, the Dove World Outreach Centre, has announced that it will burn copies of the Qur’an on Saturday 11 September to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The stated purpose of this action is to raise awareness of the ideology and teaching of Islam and to warn against its dangers.
Barnabas Aid condemns the proposed action, for the following reasons:
Barnabas Aid is fully committed to making known the aspects of Islam that result in injustice and oppression of non-Muslims, not least the persecution of Christians. But we believe that the biblical and Christ-like way to do this is by speaking the truth in the power of God’s love, and by extending that love to Muslim people even when they are hostile to us. In that context it can never be justified to destroy a book that Muslims regard as sacred, however firmly and profoundly we may disagree with its contents.
The effect of the proposed action on Christians in Muslim-majority contexts is likely to be extremely serious. Already Muslim militants in Indonesia have promised to kill Indonesian Christians if Qur’ans are burned in Florida, and the history of anti-Christian violence in the country suggests that this is not an idle threat. Barnabas partners in Iraq have expressed concern at the probable Muslim backlash against an already beleaguered Iraqi Church. And Christians in numerous other places who live in daily fear of potentially deadly attacks will at once be placed in much greater danger. It cannot be right to exercise our freedom to protest in a way that puts at risk the lives of our brothers and sisters, for whom Christ died.
There is a further risk that Christian minorities may be divided among themselves as churches with links to the West come to be unfairly associated with the action taken in Florida and its destructive consequences. It is important for Christians under pressure to be united, as their division serves only to weaken the Church and increase its vulnerability to Muslim attacks. It is therefore wholly inappropriate to undermine that unity for the sake of an unnecessary, offensive and dangerous gesture.
For these reasons Barnabas Aid urges the Dove World Outreach Centre and its supporters to refrain from burning Qur’ans on the anniversary of 9/11. It invites all Christians instead to join with us in prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world, and that the hatred and violence that endanger them may be overcome by the grace and love of Christ.
Dr Patrick Sookhdeo
International Director
Barnabas Aid
7 September 2010Contact us at info@barnabasfund.org or call 01672 564938 (from outside the UK phone +44 1672 564938).
Please pass on this email to your Christian friends and others who are interested in this issue.
I heard an interview with the “pastor” of that church and HE said Jesus would burn the Koran and support him. Hmmmmmm….
Even though Pastor Jones ended up doing nothing, he still achieved a minor victory in exposing how the entire world is shackled by the threat of imminent Muslim violence.
As an American I say that Jones is fully within his Constitutional rights to burn a Koran. As a shrewd man I say that doing so is probably unwise. But as a Christian, I politely remind everyone that no one can have two masters: you cannot serve God and Allah (spare me the pedantry, Antiochians).
Noting the fact that “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for God is not pedantry, Ingemar. If you deny that the Christian God is also the God of Islam, you must also deny that our God is the God Judaism. Are you willing to go that far?
“Shackled?” Okay, so prima facie, the Muslim street shouldn’t get its panties in a wad over such things. I will agree to that. At the same time, I will not use that as an excuse to condone behaviors, especially behaviors carried out in the name of Christ, that are gratuitously incendiary (in this case, literally so).
That is the difference between Jones’ proposed stunt and the cartoon controversy of a few years ago. The latter was done as an exercise in secularism.
Anyway, here’s the bottom line: there are somewhere around 1 billion Muslims worldwide, the vast majority residing in predominantly Muslim countries. So what is your solution to all this potential violence, which is real?
Here is mine at least in part: continue to uphold American values in an American way and to uphold Christian values in a Christian way. In the first intance, that means remembering that the First Amendment applies to ALL religions. It means consistently applying that here in the United States and calling upon all other nations, especially those which are predominantly Muslim, to the the same. These two are connected, I cannot advocate that the Saudis allow Christian Churches on their territory while saying that an Islamic community center should not built in downtown Manhatten, regardless of the rationale given.
In the second case, it means that I pray for all my “enemies” regardless of why they are “enemies” and treat them with respect and, whenever and however appropriate, as potential friends, especially in my personal life. It means I speak the truth, yes, but in love. And frankly, the truth is far more complex, in terms of Muslim behavior, than can be established by simply proof-texting from the Quran or by observing the reaction of the Muslim street to what goes on in the West. This is so because so much of what the Muslim street does is motivated not only by religion but by a complex mixture of religion together with reaction to Western imperialism, colonialism, and yes, the United States’ unconditional support for the State of Israel over against the Palestinians.
The god of Islam is most definitely not the God of Christianity, namely because we worship a Triune God which the Muslims very vociferously deny. The problem with saying that Allah is the same as God is that this “god” has us worship the God Jesus Christ and simultaneously deny that he was anything more than a Muslim prophet. If the same god issued contradictory commandments, he would be a bastard and no one should worship him.
This is not even going into the usual “Allah is violent and o Theos is not” argument. (It doesn’t work since even the New Testament God is violent).
As for where the God of the Jews fits into this, well, that’s been an argument for the past two thousand years. But a stronger argument can be made that the early Christians worship the Jewish God, as the Messiah was born a Jew, His Apostles were Jews, the first missions were among Jews in the diaspora, and the first Christians considered themselves Jews. Mohammed, on the other hand, was not a Jew and only encountered Jews in the fringes of the Byzantine empire. And again, when his raiders slaughtered the Jews of Medina.
It seems, Father, in your zeal to counter Marcionism, you embrace any group that worships a sufficiently powerful, scary being. In that case, let us include Flying Spaghetti Monsterites and Cthulluites as “co-adorers of the One God.”
No Ingemar. St. Paul’s words concering the Jews apply here: “they have a zeal for God but it unenlightened.” Same God, profoundly misunderstood.
But again, what is your solution? If Islamic armies were literally at our gates (and don’t even think about raising the issue of “terrorism” here), it would be one thing. However, that is not the case, and what we do as Americans may be at odds with what we should do as Chrsitians, or vice-versa (even if you are correct). The problem is, the slogan “Muslims worship a different god than Christians” has only served to whip up anti-Islamic hysteria which in turn incites the Muslim street. As Christians, American, and indeed, as humans, we do not need an ever-escalating vicious circle of violence.
Amen – amen -amen. We have a daughter serving in a far away land, though usually peaceful, who knows what this may spark. I have not experienced fear for her before – but now? May God’s true love and grace pierce the heart of this pastor and lead him to do what Jesus would do!
Jason Boyett (of Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse fame) related in his blog over the weekend about an attempted copycat Koran-burning in his home town of Amarillo. Went like this:
1) Koran-burner already had a reputation as a loudmouthed crazy. He announced he was going to burn the Koran in a certain public park at 3 PM on 9/11.
2) Guy shows up with Koran and barbecue grill at announced place & time. Gets greeted by about 200 protestors, plus cops trying to keep things from getting any crazier.
3) Protestors crowd around the guy’s grill so he can’t get to it.
4) Somebody steals the guy’s lighter.
Then…
5) In a daring rescue mission, a kid with a skateboard swoops in, snatches the Koran right out of the guy’s hand, makes his getaway, and delivers the Koran to local Muslim Center rep on outskirts of crowd.
6) Guy ends up standing there with no grill, no lighter, no Koran, just a bottle of lighter fluid. He gives up and goes home.