Hallowed Ground?

Fifty years ago, my father told me that the time would come when Islam would present a far greater threat to the world than did Communism, and that Christians needed to understand Islam. My father died soon after, so he never saw how dramatically, and quickly, his prediction would come true.


Now, nine years after the Wahhabist Muslim members of Al Qaeda crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center, most Americans and most Christian Americans are still woefully ignorant regarding Islam and its followers. Judging by the mostly-ridiculous public discourse we have been hearing regarding the so-called “Ground Zero mosque,” both the rosy-spectacled liberals and the equally-ignorant-but-vitriolic-and-angry conservatives seem to be simultaneously jerking their knees in their particular variations of political correctness.

The former maintain that Islam is inherently a religion of peace while ignoring the Koran’s own declarations as to the Muslim meaning of “peace” and how it is to be obtained. The latter seem neither to know, nor care, the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni, and they assume all Muslims are Wahhabists set on jihad.

As a conservative Christian, to whom the Bible says that these Muslim people for whom Jesus died are not the enemy [Ephesians 6:12], my primary concern is with the incredibly un-Christian reactions of a lot of people who themselves claim to be both conservative Christians and patriotic Americans.

I am no fan of Islam, but this opposition to the proposed Muslim cultural center – modeled after the Jewish 92nd St. “Y”,with similar sport and cultural facilities and including a prayer room, not a mosque – is one of the most amazingly STUPID, IGNORANT, UN-AMERICAN and UN-CHRISTIAN activities I have observed in a long time.

Furthermore, the mob hysteria over the proposed cultural center continues to play right into the hands of America's real enemies even as it exposes its protagonists to deserved ridicule. I take no pleasure in seeing right-wing political pundits actually agreeing with Al Qaeda in their opposition to a Muslim group that seeks a moderate course vis-à-vis America.

Conservative American Christians, especially, need to re-think their knee-jerk Palin worship and consider the potential consequences to themselves and their own interests, plus the damage to Constitutional protections, if they should succeed in interfering with the construction of the cultural center.

Oh yes – American Christians also need to consider how their rhetoric relates to Jesus Christ’s interests in those same Muslims.

If Muslims can be kept from building their cultural center on private property after they have jumped through all the legal hoops, then Christians can expect to be victims of the same lynch-mob rationale as, in future, their own precedent is turned against them to prevent church buildings from being erected, etc. You can kiss goodbye to any idea, not only of "religious freedom," but also of "private property rights" and "the rule of law."

We cannot safely pick and choose which Constitutional rights to recognize for others without endangering ourselves and our children, and when we would ignore the rights of Muslims in America, we remake ourselves into the very image of the intolerant Muslim governments we decry overseas.

How can we ever again claim any kind of “moral high ground” in the Middle East or anywhere else?

And these considerations do not even begin to touch the ridiculous posturing by the Becks and Palins of the world as they talk about "hallowed ground" (have you noticed any of the other businesses that are built at the same distance as the proposed mosque around Ground Zero? Look at http://daryllang.com/blog/4421 & http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/2010/08/welcome-to-the-neighborhood-a-look-at-the-area-around-the-ground-zero-mosque.php?img=17), etc.

If it is true -- and perhaps it is -- that the Muslim community is just trying to "spit in America's face" with this proposed mosque, then keep in mind that one of the things that has kept this nation great is the fact that in America, one has the Constitutional right to spit (at least figuratively) in the face of just about anyone. THAT is one of the very things that has historically made "us" better that all the "them"s of the world, and especially, of the Islamic world.

This very thing -- the recognition of the rights of those with whom we disagree -- is part of the HIGH COST OF FREEDOM.

Dear Reader, get a grip! Emotional reactions are a terrible way to make decisions, especially those that have such far-reaching consequences!

Whether as Christians, or merely as Americans, GET BACK TO THE ROCK FROM WHICH YOU WERE HEWN and stop giving real aid and comfort to the enemies of both our freedom and our faith! While you are at it, tell the Becks and Palins of the world to get off their self-aggrandizing soap boxes and hush!

Yes – there is real danger to America from some Muslim quarters, but I have no fear that America will be damaged by a Muslim establishment on Park Place in New York. America can be destroyed, however, by people who – even in the name of a misguided and false patriotism – are willing to ignore and trample the rights of others.

As prescient as my father was about the dangers of Islam, I am glad he did not live to see the Lord Jesus so shamed by this knee-jerk hatred against Muslims for whom Jesus died.

[Cf. also:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/opinion/17dalrymple.html?_r=1
&
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22rich.html?hp]