You’ve all heard about Bishop Terry Jones of Florida, who’s threatening to burn the Qur’an on September 11, despite being roundly condemned by Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, General Petraeus (don’t you just LOVE how Greek his name is?!), and Saint Angelina Jolie. (Ooh, Terry better watch out – the Child Army is so coming after his butt.)
[picapp align="none" wrap="false" link="term=maddox+shiloh+pax+zahara&iid=8541301" src="http://view1.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/8541301/brad-pitt-parents-william/brad-pitt-parents-william.jpg?size=500&imageId=8541301" width="500" height="750" /]
Maddox will mess you up, man. That kid plays with KNIVES.
Let’s just get a little book-keeping out of the way.
1. Burning the Qur’an is awful and I find it personally upsetting.
2. Burning the Qur’an and other acts of protest are protected by our Constitution, and I’d find it personally upsetting if they weren’t.
The second one probably upsets some of my fellow Muslims, but that’s the way I feel about it. Things like burning books and flags and protesting [insert whatever here] are all protected, and they should be. Yes, there are certain things that normal, moral (?), tolerant people with any shred of understanding just wouldn’t do (usually, burning religious books or the American flag), but it’s important to have certain protections in place, anyway. So, yeah, I said it. Come get me.
Also, from what I understand from my Floridian friends – as well as TRPLS readers that have been kind enough to comment! – Terry Jones’s church is tiny. And they’re reputed fanatics that have done horrible things over the years. Basically? These people are trash and few take them seriously. So that’s cool.
Now that we’ve got all that stuff out of the way, let’s move on to the more important things.
With this playing out on a national stage now, another little story seems to be gaining traction, at least, in the most reactionary, least-fact-checked corner of our here Interwebz.
It’s the story that Muslims will be burning the Bible in retaliation.
Presumably, there are well-meaning Christians across the country who, even though they may not support Terry Jones’s brilliant plan here, will be up in arms at the thought of someone, somewhere, burning their religious text.
Anyone who’s read these stories or is concerned about them needs to know something: Muslims would never, ever burn either the Bible or the Torah.
We believe, as it is said in the Qur’an over and over, that the Bible and the Torah are the words of God, sent down to believers (people of the Book, ahl-al-Kitab) through His Messengers, Jesus and Moses, among many others.
(That’s right, we love Jesus as much as any other Abrahamic worshipper, but that’s a thought for another time.)
Since the Bible and Torah are the Books of God, we treat them with as much respect as we treat the Qur’an. Typically, in Muslim homes, Qur’ans are placed on the highest spot in the room, usually the top of a bookshelf, and oriented toward the East (Mecca). We only touch the Qur’an when we’re in a state of ritual cleanliness (after we perform wudu, or a religious ablution that consists of basically rinsing the hands, mouth, nose, face, top of the head, ears, neck, arms up to the elbow and feet up to the ankle with water), and we never put it on the floor, nor do we put our feet up when someone nearby is holding a Qur’an, nor do we put our feet higher than the book, or toward the book.
Some of these rituals of respect are cultural. Most of them, probably. But the Qur’an does tell us to treat it with respect, reading from it only when we are clean, and so on.
But if you went into a Muslim home that also contained a Bible or Torah, you’d most likely find those books on a high shelf, as well. Probably not the top shelf, and probably not reserved only for those in a state of wu’du, but you’d find them carefully tucked away to prevent misuse or disrespect.
We treat your religious texts with respect and care. We wouldn’t burn them. They come from our God, too, despite what you’ve been told.
And as far as those Muslims that might consider burning the Bible or Torah or disrespecting them in some way…well, let’s call them our Terry Joneses.
