September 11th, "Ground Zero Mosques", and Koran Burnings

I know I'm running a bit late for a commentary on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, but I wanted to chime in on a few things that I believe are prescient even two weeks out.

This latest anniversary seemed different to me than ones in the past; alot of divisiveness. I think much of this division had to do with the controversy that is still continuing over a proposed Islamic Cultural Center (aka 'Ground Zero Mosque' if you are into inciteful soundbytes from Fox News) to be constructed a few blocks away from where the World Trade Center once stood. Probably a close second was the book burning (postponed) of Korans planned by a small Protestant Church Congregation in Florida.

Before I comment further on the 'divides' though, let me say this...

The destruction and killing that took place over 9 years ago was of a magnitude and scope that most Americans, myself included, were not used to, and I think, myself included, are apt to forget.

We should never forget the people who perished in these most egregious terrorist acts of 9 years ago. The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania were in many respects giant torture chambers for the over 2,700 people who lost their lives. Many had to make the horrific choice of jumping from 40 stories up in the air to their death, or being consumed by an unquenchable fire. These were people like you and me reading this right now who, through no fault of their own, found themselves in an impossible situation. People who went to work that day never had a chance against those hateful people who were bent on killing indiscriminately.

Now there are some people I know who would blame the religion of Islam for the lives lost on September 11th. And while I am not a fan of any religion, and think Islam does have alot to answer for in terms of its own idealogies...blaming Islam for the lives lost on September 11th is taking things a bit far in my book. Can we all just take a few deep breaths, step back from this situation, and consider a few things?

1. We have a number of ‘holy’ books that various billions of people on our planet attest to as the one ‘true’ sacred revelation from ‘God’; think Bible, Koran, Talmud, Upanishads, Vedas, etc. If we single out the Bible, surely we can find passages where genocide and retribution toward those who work against ‘God’ and ‘his ways’ are justified. I'll throw a few out...

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations…then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.” Deuteronomy 7:1-2, NIV.

or...

“…do not leave alive anything that breaths. Completely destroy them…as the Lord your God has commanded you…” Deuteronomy 20:16, NIV.

Now just because there are passages in the Christian Bible that approve violence, I don’t know too many Christians who would take these same passages to heart, and actually use them to commit egregious acts against an entire group of people. That's not to say that there aren't some out there who would, just that they would be in the extreme minority of Christians who would consider doing something like that today.

The fact remains though that in the Christians' ‘Holy’ book, there are passages that don’t necessarily paint a glowing picture of an all loving, yet quite peculiarly, jealous and vengeful deity.

So, let’s not just pick on the Bible, how about the Koran, Islam’s sacred text and oral traditions. I’m sure, like we did with the Bible, we can find plenty of examples where violence is sanctioned, possibly even encouraged against people who disobey God.

[3.056]
"As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help."

[8.012]
"Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them."

Taken from the following website: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/koran/browse.html at the University of Michigan.

Not exactly the most glowing of reviews for a religion that has been purported by many as a religion of peace.

But wait, would you even guess that there are passages in the Koran that speak to treating others kindly, with dignity and respect?

Look at these passages from the same holy book:

[2.224] And make not Allah because of your swearing (by Him) an obstacle to your doing good and guarding (against evil) and making peace between men, and Allah is Hearing, Knowing.

[20.47] So go you both to him and say: Surely we are two apostles of your Lord; therefore send the children of Israel with us and do not torment them! Indeed we have brought to you a communication from your Lord, and peace is on him who follows the guidance

Obviously these two verses are not exhaustive in terms of laying out evidence that a religion is peaceful. I simply throw these out as counterweights if you will to the verses that speak to violence. You can do this all day with any "holy" text.

So getting back to our deep breaths and considerations of a few things...

2. Islam is practiced by over a billion people on our planet. Let me say that again, Islam is practiced by over a billion people. At last check, I didn’t see over a billion acts of utter carnage flowing from all corners of the world. Sure it might seem like that on a busy news day out of Iraq or Afghanistan, but day in and day out, the vast majority of Muslims just like Christians and Jews go about their daily lives in peace. Like Christians who know which verses to cherry pick and live their lives by, Muslims do the same with their Koran. We should all keep in mind that the small subset of Muslims who practice terrorism and violent tactics in some parts of the world is just that, a small subset of the entire population of people who practice the religion of Islam. And that small subset are most likely in areas of extreme economic upheaval.

Lest we forget too, remember that there were, and still are small subsets of Christians who practice acts of violence against minorities, most noteably blacks and homosexuals.

Do we need to condemn an entire religion for some of its followers who probably would kill and do bad things regardless of their belief in any supernatural being?

I say 'No'.

Rather what we should do is condemn the real threat to our country, and the world, as I see it, uneducated masses of people acting out of fear and irrationality, rather than calm and reasoning.

All religions look to gain a foothold. They all want to spread their “good news”. I’ll take a religious person every day of the week and twice on Tuesday who practices critical thinking, over an areligious person who has knee jerk reactions to stimuli.

If we want to have a better world, we need to teach our children, as well as our adults the importance of a secular democracy where church and state are separate, religious people can practice their faith without reprisal, and all people, religious and areligious, can have civil discourse and debate of ideas using logic and reasoning.

My thoughts (which are incidentally my prayers) are with the families of the people who lost their lives over 9 years ago in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. These family members who remain come from all walks of life, and as I’m sure with the loss of any loved one, still ache for that person to return and be with them again. I lost my Dad over 2 years ago to cancer, and while I know it’s a far cry from losing someone in a terrorist attack, losing him is still as fresh today as it was 2 years ago, and I miss him more today than I did yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by,

Drew