Dear friends:
Rev. Franklin Graham said during an October 2001 interview at the dedication of an N.C. chapel in the name of his parents, Billy and Ruth Graham:
“We are not attacking Islam, but Islam has attacked us…Islam is a very evil and wicked religion.”
Rev: Graham wrote in the Wall Street Journal (12/3/01): “The Koran provides ample evidence that Islam encourages violence in order to win converts and to reach the ultimate of an Islamic World…”
Attorney General John Aschroft who is required to uphold American justice for all people said: "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him.”
Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean of Simon Weisenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles told Larry King on December 1, 2001: “There is direct references in the Koran to violence. I will read one from the Koran: ‘O you believe, take not the Jews and Christians for friends.” When Larry King asked, “It does not say kill them.” Rabbi Hier replied, “No, but it infers, of course, that there is a difference.”
Similarly, Mr. Cal Thomas, a newspaper columnist, spread bigotry against Muslims in Detroit Free Press (Nov. 26, 2001) as follows: “There are no commands to make friend with ‘infidels.” Another opinion columnist wrote that western values are different than that of Islam.
Rev: Franklin’s, Rabbi Hier’s, Cal Thomas’, and many American media descriptions are unfair and dishonest characterization of the Koran and Islam. I am saddened to see such distorted public outcry against Islam by well-respected people, especially a Christian reverent and a Rabbi who heads a “tolerance center”. Ignorance is the root cause of all forms of intolerance. It is much more clearly explained by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr: “Men hate each other because they fear each other, and they fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they are often separated from each other.” Rev. Franklin Graham and Rabbi Hier must have been wrongly informed. However, I freely and honestly admit that currently Muslims nations are going through a “Dark Age” as Christianity experienced before the Enlightenment and Renaissance of the West.
ISLAM A MODERATE RELIGION
West plunged into the Dark Ages after Roman bishop Leo I the Great with the support of the Roman Emperor Valentenian III (440-61) hijacked Christianity with an epoch-making edict imperially confirming the authority of the Roman bishop over all Christian churches [Ref: The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. Vol. 4. Page. 50-51]. Similarly, the ruling monarchies, dictators, fanatics, extremists, and terrorists in the Muslim world have hijacked Islam for their self-interest. Their political power and financial clout helped to suppress the moderate Islam preached by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the Koran. The extremism is un-Islamic.
The Koran states that Islam is a middle of the road—not extreme left or right—religion. Islam recommends moderation and balance in every thing--- belief, warship, conduct, and legislation. Moderation and balance are not only a general characteristic of Islam but it is a fundamental doctrine of Islam. The Koran states: "We made you to be the community of middle path..." (Verse 2:143).
Mohammad Asad, a well-respected exegete of the Koran, describes that Koranic community of Muslims "as middle most community that keeps an equitable balance between extremes." Moreover, Prophet said: "Beware of excessiveness in religion. People before you have perished as a result of such excessiveness.” [Ref: Hadith collections of Ibn Hambal (780-855), al-Nasai (830-915), and Ibn Maja (825-887).
According to Imam Al-Qardawi, “as such the ideal Muslim community is a nation of justice and moderation, not of extremism.” [Ref: “Extremism” by Imam Yusuf Al-Qardawi in “Liberal Islam: A Source Book.” Edited by Charles Kurzman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.). Therefore, Talibanism and Wohabism of Saudi Arabia, and other religious extremisms are cults that have become overpowering force due to their financial and political strength. These ideological cults masquerading as Islam are dangerous to humanity as whole. These cults crushed cruelly the innocent and helpless Muslims at large into submissive robots and the mouthpieces of their masters. These cults transformed the practice of Prophet’s (pbuh) Islam of contemplation and analysis into simple mimicry.
Rabbi Hier, Cal Thomas, Rev. Franklin Graham, and The Koran
Cal Thomas, Rabbi Hier, and others quote the verses (2:191) from Koran outside textural and historical context. They cunningly omit the verses 2:190 and 193 as well as other verses in order to promote violence and hatred against Muslims. They use these verses out of historical and textural context to make their point. We shall discuss these verses later.
How would Franklin Graham and Cal Thomas react if someone quotes the following verses from the Bible to misrepresent Christianity as a religion of violence? The Holy Bible states: “As for my enemies, who do not want me to reign over them, bring them here and kill them in my presence.” (Holy Bible: St Luke 19:26) and “Do not think that I came to send peace on Earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword.” (Holy Bible: Mathew 10:34). If someone quote the following verses out of context from the Hebrew Bible to discredit Judaism, how would Rabbi Hier, the director of Jewish Center for tolerance reacts: “ If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father…Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.” (Deuteronomy 21:12-21); “Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every women who has known man intimately. But spare for yourselves all virgin maidens” (Holy Bible: Number 31:18).
Deception is not the true character of Christianity and Judaism.
No! I will not quote the above verses from the Holy Bible out of the context as Cal Thomas, Rev. Graham, and Rabbi Hier do from the Koran. Similarly, Christians, Jews, and Muslims who value truth, compassion, and love would not engage in such misrepresentation of fact as Rabbi Hier and Cal Thomas do. False accusation and Deception are not one of the true characters of Christianity and Judaism or Islam. Christianity of the Roman church of the Dark Ages was not a compassionate loving religion for centuries. Roman church did not allow the freedom of faith. Just like contemporary Muslim Mullahs of Kandahar, Afghanistan, Pope Bonifice VIII issued the bull Unam sanctam on October 1302 that there is only one true Church outside which there is no salvation; there but one body of Christ, with one head, not two; that head is Christ and His representative, the Roman pope. The pontiff council proclaimed: “We declare and define and pronounce,” concluded the bull, “that it is necessary for salvation that all men should be subjected to Roman pontiff.” [Ref: The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. Vol. 4. Page. 814]. However, it was also not the religion and same Church that guided Mother Theresa and Father Damien. It was not the Christianity that continues to guide President Jimmy Carter, a peacemaker, who builds homes for the homeless, and millions of devout Christians. Therefore, none must blame true Christianity for the fanaticism, cruelty, and extremism of Roman Christianity of the Dark Ages that made our ancestors to flee over Atlantic Ocean and build our “one nation under God” for freedom, happiness, safety, and justice for all. We must not blame Christianity for Inquisition and burning of Bruno also. Similarly, we must not blame Islam for the crime, cruelty, and fanaticism of the contemporary terrorist or state-enforced distorted form of Islam.
Similarly, we must not assume Roman Christianity of the Dark ages as true Christianity even though it was the most popular form of religion, probably the only form of religion, in western world before the Enlightenment and Reformation of west. We must not blame Christianity for massacre of Protestants by Catholics and vise versa all across Europe in 15th to 17th century. We must not blame Christianity for anti-Semitism existed in the west until very recently that made Jews to flee from Europe to Muslim dominated land. (“In the year that Columbus discovered America, the last Muslim strong hold fell to the Catholic rulers and, three months later, Ferinand expelled all Jews from Spain except for those who accepted to become Christians... The Majority of Jews turned eastward: from Mughirib to Iraq…” [REF: A History of Jews by Ilan Halevi. Page 78]). Similarly, it is not within Christian or Jewish ethics to equate intolerant, oppressive practices of the many contemporary misguided Muslims with the compassionate and peaceful religion of Islam that the Koran and Prophet preached. A review of the fundamental teachings of the Koran, the ultimate source of Islam, and the world history written by western historians would guide us to determine whether Islam fits with Graham’s description of it as “wicked religion.”
The Koran condemns Murder of innocents
The Koran emphasizes the importance of saving life and condemns the indiscriminate murder of innocent people of all faith:
"If anyone slew a person-unless it is the punishment for murder or for spreading mischief in the land- it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if anyone save a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people." (Koran 5:35). Another verse states: Chapter 6, verse 151: "Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law." (Koran 6:151). Moreover, in Islam, suicide is prohibited: “Kill not yourselves.” (Koran 4:29).
These verses expose Attorney General John Aschroft’s distasteful misrepresentation that “Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him.”
The Koran advocates Compassion and Patience in Daily Living.
The Koran obligates Muslims to be compassionate and patient in daily living and human interactions. It states:
“and enjoin one another in patience, and enjoin one another in compassion such are the companion of the right hand.” (Koran 90:17-18).
Note: The views expressed in these articles does not necessarily represent the views of Muslims in Toledo, Ohio nor the views of ToledoMuslims.com, it's staff, owners, editors, webmaster, or writers. The views expressed represent the views of the writer only. ToledoMuslims.com is not responsible for any of the expressed views. Please feel free to comment on our articles in the article discussion area provided.
Printer
Friendly 
Email
Article