NCC's Kireopoulos: a lamentation for religious bigotry

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

Religious Ignorance, Bigotry and Ill Will:  A Lamentation for 9/11

By Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos

Associate General Secretary - Faith & Order and Interfaith Relations
National Council of Churches USA

Ed. Note. This op.ed is a response by Dr. Kireopoulos to threats by 
the
pastor of a small church in Florida to burn the Qur-an on September 
11.
Permission is granted to use it in any way.

If one is looking for fuel to have a bonfire, there is no more 
explosive
a mixture than ignorance, bigotry and ill will.  We need only think of
the slave trade in West Africa, the Trail of Tears in the United 
States,
and the pogroms in Eastern Europe, not to mention armed conflicts in 
all
parts of the world, to know that, at its worst, such ill will has 
turned
into violence and the killing of countless people by others whose
imaginations have been inflamed by bigotry.  At the heart of many of
these situations was theological ignorance.

Unfortunately, we cannot forever consign ignorance, bigotry and ill 
will
to the past.  This coming Saturday, on the 9th anniversary of 
September
11, Rev. Terry Jones and his church, the Dove World Outreach Center, 
in
Gainesville, Florida, plan to hold a highly publicized Qur'an burning.
Rev. Jones says he wants to send a "very clear, radical message to
Muslims, to Sharia law, that that is not welcome in America."
Expressions of outrage, disbelief, and disgust have rightly been 
issued
from every geographical and religious corner of the globe. 

On all levels, it is easy to dismiss Rev. Jones' bigotry and ill will.
But on the theological level, it is not enough to dismiss his error.
Indeed, we need to understand his error, and to see where such 
ignorance
may lead, and why.

A mistake often made in comparing Christianity and Islam is to see 
Jesus
Christ and Mohammed on a par with one another, and the Bible and the
Qur'an as analogous sacred texts.  But the theological reality is
different.  In Islam, Mohammed is the prophet through whom God 
revealed
himself in the Qur'an, and while Mohammed is revered for this role, it
is nonetheless the Qur'an that is believed to be the divine Word of 
God.
In Christianity, Jesus himself is believed to be the Word of God; the
Bible is venerated as the written record of the revelation of his true
divine identity.  Thus, as far as religious comparisons go, it is 
Christ
and the Qur'an, respectively claimed as revelations of God, that 
should
be considered together.  This clarification helps to explain the
Qur'an's absolutely privileged and passionately defended place in 
Muslim
hearts and minds.

Bring us back to this coming September 11.  If as he reiterates Rev.
Jones follows through with his plan to burn stacks of the Qur'an, it
would be seen by Muslims as nothing other than an attack on the 
ultimate
divine revelation.  It would not be simply an attack on a book, 
albeit a
book considered sacred by 1 billion people, but an affront to the very
God that is worshiped by those 1 billion people (not to mention the 2
billion Christians, and Jews, too, that worship the same God).

We can only imagine what kind of response this action might elicit.
Most frighteningly, in villages across the Middle East, Asia and
elsewhere, countless Christians may yet again suffer lethal violence 
at
the hands of extremist Muslims for no reason other than the 
theological
shortcomings of an extremist Christian in the United States.  After 
all,
in the last 7 years, Christians in Iraq have suffered terribly from
Muslim anger for their perceived association with Christian extremists
in the West.  We need only recall the outrage during the scandals of 
Abu
Ghraib and Guantanamo to reports of guards urinating on or otherwise
desecrating the Qur'an.  Again this time, it will not be the likes of
Rev. Jones who feel the backlash for such reprehensible behavior, but
Christians in other places whose only sin is that they - at least in
name only - share the same faith with an extremist in Florida.  

Let's be clear:  It would be wrong for Muslim extremists to blame all
Christians for the violence of a few against what Islam considers the
revealed Word of God.  But let's also be clear about what would be
motivating this violence:  the desecration of, and violence to, what 
all
Muslims hold most sacred.  That is a great price to pay for ignorance,
Rev. Jones.

>See: www.ncccusa.org/news/100909tklament.html