Recent news tells of a not-so-tolerant church in Florida. Refer to CNN's coverage for background info (I found 1:47 particularly interesting. All lives? Really?). As I said, I think of myself as a pretty tolerant person. One thing I do not tolerate, though, is arrogance. This particular church, the Dove World Outreach Center, has expressed views I strongly disagree with. Honestly, I cannot present this information without a strong opposing bias. They preach tolerance, and yet seem to, and I say "seem" because I have never been to this church or been in the shoes of the members, be very intolerant of Muslim people.
On September 11, the 9 year anniversary of the World Trade Center disaster, this church plans to burn the Koran, the Muslim holy book. Yes, the event was tragic. Yes, we are continuing to remember this tragic event. No, dwelling on the past will not solve anything.
Everyone has the right to practice what they believe, as says the first amendment of the American Constitution. The Declaration of Independence protects the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Liberty, as defined by Oxford American Dictionaries, is "the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views." With this in mind, the government cannot stop the Dove World Outreach Center from burning the Koran or posting an insulting website, yet the center cannot silence Muslim people from doing as they chose.
In this situation, no one wins. In any hateful situation, I believe, no one will win. To boil down a very complicated moral scenario, "someone will get their feelings hurt."
I am not asking anyone to take sides, or take swift action, or even to take slow action. Please just educate yourself about the world around you. This issue impacts everyone, whether Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Atheist, what have you. It begs questions of personal liberty and where to draw the line, if at all, on freedom of expression.
So I say, to everyone, Shana Tova. You may accept the greeting or not, but please do so respectfully. Thanks.
I am not asking anyone to take sides, or take swift action, or even to take slow action. Please just educate yourself about the world around you. This issue impacts everyone, whether Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Atheist, what have you. It begs questions of personal liberty and where to draw the line, if at all, on freedom of expression.
So I say, to everyone, Shana Tova. You may accept the greeting or not, but please do so respectfully. Thanks.
I love that you talked about this. I completely agree with you. Respect really has to be granted as well as earned. How can we expect to be respected if we treat others in such a manners? You don't have to agree with someone, but you have to be sensitive to how what you do affects others. Ignorance of other's emotions leads to more pain in them, and in return in yourself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you as well. When I first heard of the burning of the Koran on the news, I was outraged. One thing that really angered me was the hate towards Islam. Yes, 9/11 was an awful tragedy that will never be forgotten, but Islam as a whole religion cannot be blamed. Condemning a religion to a reputation is what many Americans, and many people around the world say they will never do again, because it is similar to the Holocaust. Islam didn't steer a plane into the twin towers, a group of people did. It is like saying, oh that blonde girl killed someone, let's take it out on every blonde on the globe.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your post and I can't understand why everyone has to have the same point of view? One of our constitutional rights is the freedom of speech and religion, right? And this priest who was going to burn Korans only decided not to in exchange to meet with the leader of the people who want to build a mosque on ground zero. It's rude and really shows how unforgiving some people are.
ReplyDeleteI just watched the video you linked to and my immediate reaction was that it is sick. The way Dani worded it is exactly how I would word it- how could they stereotype so viciously? And how dare they "promote tolerance" when clearly doing the opposite. Even though it is the first amendment that they can legally burn the Koran, I don't think that needs to be as publicized as they are making it. Be intolerant and arrogant on your own time, if at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think it's disrespectful to burn another religion's writings. Making it public makes the brunt of it ten times worse as well. I agree with Dani that not all Muslims are at fault of the disaster on 9/11 and that it is only a select few. Even though everyone is entitled to their own opinion, the publication of such an idea is disrespectful. Jen's right, how do we expect to be treated with respect if things like this become out of hand?
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of your comments. I just want to let everyone know, if they don't already, that the burnings did not take place. It makes me feel a little better about the situation, but the fact that it was even at hand shows we have a long way to go as a human race. Like Dani said, intolerance caused millions of people to lose there lives during the Holocaust. People have been prosicuted for their beliefs (or race, sexuality, etc.) for much too long. Let's hope that people will educate themselves to a point where they realize different beliefs are not necessarily wrong.
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