A have a good friend that I respect a great deal. His name is JR Briggs and he is lead pastor and cultural cultivator of , in Lansdale Pennsylvania.
Over the past several weeks I have had more and more people ask me my thoughts on the proposed mosque that would be built two blocks away from ground zero. Opinions have been strong on both sides of this issue and as I was praying and reflecting on it, I ran across JR’s post. I liked it so much I even stole his image. So…
JR,
Thoughts?
Jim
Callaway said...
1Well Jim, while there are some good thoughts to consider, I do disagree with JR. Here are my responses to the 3 main points I got out of it, in order of appearance:
1. Re: the President’s responsibility to act periodically. The current President has so many times acted in-periodically in that he and his administration have pushed through so many policies that are unconstitutional. He has also threatened to use other regulators to do his bidding if Congress doesn’t pass what he wants (one example being cap & trade). Be “patriotic”, yes, but not selectively just to play his audience.
2. Re: Islam being a peaceful religion. Are not they taught from the Koran that they should either convert or kill infidels?
3. Canadian journalists Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah state, “The fact we Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel.” They continue to add that it is an act of “mischief-making” which is “forbid by the Koran.” So they hold Islam to be peaceful in some sense then, but it still does not reconcile with my understanding of jihad.
08/17/10 6:00 PM | Comment Link
Callaway said...
2“periodically” in my first point should be “patriotically”, but my phone’s auto-correct thought otherwise.
08/17/10 6:01 PM | Comment Link
Ian said...
3I also saw a *grossly* oversimplified “tweet” coming from the anti-anti-mosque side today:
“In fairness, we’ve been building ‘ground zeros’ near Iraqi mosques since March 2003.”
I think that’s funny and has some truth behind it, but it’s kinda apples and oranges with the situation in NYC. On to my real points…
While I am not against the mosque, I think the message of “freedom of religion” on the pro-mosque side is wrong here. Even President Obama referenced it as a stance of said freedom. In my mind, that simply feeds the problem, it’s basically like saying “no matter how messed up the religion is you’re free to do it” about the regular Muslims wanting to build their mosque. But in reality NO, the kind of religion that took thousands of lives on 9/11 is NOT welcome in our country. Just like JR was saying, the message President Obama should be sending is that we should stop tying together true Islam with the bin Laden’s crew. We need to remember that this is not al Qaeda building a mosque, it’s peaceful Islam. Despite Callaway’s points and the thoughts of random “journalists”, a Muslim raised in community following the Koran is not doomed to violence any more than a Christian will never hear a woman’s voice in church. These people are brainwashed puppets of twisted and evil minds; mankind has seen it before and on a *much* larger scale (Nazism… the Crusades…).
Secondly, I cannot imagine any purely legal basis for denying the mosque. Despite its unpopularity, we are not a true democracy, nor would I ever want to live in one. I really feel like lately conservatives have been swinging this “will of the people” line too brazenly, because true democracy is part of what the system of checks and balances is in place to prevent. The “little guy” has no voice in a true democracy; or worse, the little guy even loses freedoms, when he doesn’t stand in line with the “will of the people”. I’m not saying that Republicans are secretly pushing for a true democracy at all, but the “will of the people” line is a powerful tool that is being miswielded selfishly just to get your way and score political points.
While I am immensely proud of our President for taking this stance, I hope that he can drive home the fact that we aren’t *only* supporting the mosque for legal reasons. If we as people can’t see normal Islam without seeing the terror of those who have twisted it into a weapon, then we may be unworthy of our patriotism.
08/17/10 7:23 PM | Comment Link
Callaway said...
4Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah wrote the official statement on the mosque, as well as a letter to Imam Faisal Rauf, on behalf of the Muslim Canadian Congress.
I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s a lot more complicated than just saying “it’s a free country.” If you follow the money, the project is largely funded by radicals. Furthermore, Faisal Abdul Rauf is overseas in the middle east right now raising money for the project. The kicker? The State Department sent him there, all expenses paid (for by us taxpayers).
As a Christian and an American, it’s really hard to know what to think about all of this. Of course I think we agree it’s a bad idea for them to choose that location, but should we want it stopped? Of course there’s lots of legality to hide behind, but it seems very clear to me what the intent of the project backers is.
08/18/10 3:30 AM | Comment Link
Chris said...
5As an American I affirm their right to build a mosque where they want it. I wouldn’t want the gov’t to step in and keep me from building a church somewhere.
As a Christian, I’m not really in favor of building mosques anywhere, which provide for false religion and the deception of many.
08/23/10 12:36 PM | Comment Link