It wasn't until years later, that I finally understood. Religion was never the opiate for the masses. FEAR was, is, and always shall be the opiate for the masses. Religion is just fear's favorite syringe. Enter Pastor Terry Jones and his Dove World Outreach Center. Maybe the name should be the Dove World Outreach Center for Hatred and Intolerance? This church sold shirts last year that read "Islam is of the Devil". This year, they want to burn copies of the Quran. I would dearly love to see someone set up in sight of their book burning, and burn copies of the Bible. I'm willing to bet their reaction to it would not be good (I would, personally, be caught between outrage at my holy book being burned and glee at the hate-monger and his flock receiving a very pointed object lesson).
I was surprised at one thing Terry Jones said. He admitted not reading the Quran. I'm not surprised he didn't read it. I'm surprised he ADMITTED he hasn't read it. The favorite tactic of close-minded Christians is to condemn a thing without knowing anything about it while pretending to know a lot about it. I still remember a TV show I once saw on a Christian cable channel that condemned Harry Potter as being Satanic. I've read all the Harry Potter books. In fact, I've read them (all but the last one) 3 times. I have yet to see the Satanism. This TV show put forth fact after fact, and drew logical conclusions from these facts to support their accusation. The only problem? Anyone that has read the books could see how false the facts they presented were. But, I digress.
Terry Jones is, simply put, a fear monger. He is controlling his "flock", and gaining publicity for his church by spreading hatred for a people that don't believe the same things he does. Yes, the men that orchestrated and executed the murders on 9/11/01 were Muslim. Yes, they did it for religious reasons. Here's a wake-up call. Almost none of the things these men believed was true. Oh, I don't mean the basis of their religion. I mean the whole virgins in heaven thing. I mean that killing infidels is the quickest way into heaven, and all that. Most of the things Americans believe that Muslims believe are nowhere to be found in the Quran. In fact, Americans make many mistakes when it comes to Muslims. Here are a few:
Mistake 1: Muslims are terrorists.
Mistake 2: Muslims are terrorists because Islam practices hatred and murder.
Mistake 3: All of the heavenly promises that require murder and/or suicide come from the Quran.
Let's look at these.
Muslims are terrorists. I have a few good friends that would fall over in a faint if they thought you thought they were terrorists. In fact, MOST Muslims are good, charitable people (and I mean charitable in the "Christian" sense). Show of hands, who knew that Muslims read the bible (both Old and New Testament) as well as the Quran? I know I was shocked to find that out the first time I read the Quran, and it kept referencing Adam & Eve, Moses, Abraham, etc.
Muslims are terrorists because Islam practices hatred and murder. Yeah, I'm gonna go back to my standard stance of "Talk to me once you've actually READ the Quran". Sure, there is talk of killing in the Quran. There is talk of when it's OK to kill and when not. It does even say that it's holy to kill Christians and Jews. Of course, it says it's holy to kill them in DEFENSE of other Muslims. They're kind of like Jedi. "Never to attack, always to defend."
All of the heavenly promises that require murder and/or suicide come from the Quran. In fact, NONE of these comes from the Quran. These were made up by imams to convince people to kill themselves to achieve a goal.
So, the point I'm meandering my way to is this. Read the book, then let's talk. Like my 10th grade American History teacher Mr. Inman used to say..."Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're an idiot than to open it, and leave no doubt." When you start spewing facts about Islam without having read the book all Muslims follow, you're leaving no doubt.
