Are we stoking the fires of Armegeddon? Gail

Powell attacks Christian right

Oliver Burkeman in New York Friday November 15, 2002 The Guardian

Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, condemned America's Christian right yesterday for propagating hatred against Muslims, in what appeared to be a coordinated White House campaign to confront anti-Islamic rhetoric from a constituency that includes some of the Bush administration's staunchest supporters. Days after the televangelist Pat Robertson said on his Christian Broadcasting Network that "what the Muslims want to do to the Jews is worse" than the Holocaust, Mr Powell told a gathering in Washington: "This kind of hatred must be rejected."

The escalation in anti-Muslim comments from conservative Christians includes a recent claim by Jerry Falwell, the country's leading rightwing Baptist, that the prophet Mohammed was "a terrorist".

Veteran evangelist Jimmy Swaggart followed that this week by calling Mohammed a "sex deviant" and a pervert and demanding that Muslim students in the US be expelled. "We ought to tell every other Muslim living in this nation that if you say one word, you're gone," he said.

As the likelihood grows of a war in Iraq there are strategic benefits for the White House in convincing Muslims that it would not be a war against their religion.

The administration's increased willingness to confront the Christian right reflects the Republicans' sweeping victories in last week's mid-term elections, reducing Mr Bush's reliance on the extreme fringes of his supporter base.

-- gail (rothfarms@socket.net), November 15, 2002

Answers

Having returned from a work contract in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia I can say the imam's there are not shy to voice their hatred of Christians & Jews during Mosque sermon's. Peace or neighbourly love is not mentioned but sheer vengeance. It's common enough to buy cassettes of these sermon's. I was aghast at the hatred spoken of westerner's by the cleric's and the fact that they do so without fear of censorship from the authorities. I realised this from a fellow Arab (convert) Christian whom I stayed with.

It was nice to return home, to a church that spoke of peace, love & forgiveness. I may not agree with some of the Christian right, but I take my hat off to them for voicing what so many perhaps feel, especially since our country was attacked and the fact that Moslem's here on a whole have kept adequately silent about speaking out against Muslims who want to kill and terrorise American's. I do not feel any sympathy for Moslem's after my trip, not until they genuinely stop to accept the existence of other faiths and stop expecting the world to pay homage to them that is not deserved.

-- claire (claire_dwight@ditto.com), November 15, 2002.

Hi Gail "Are we stoking the fires of Armegeddon?"

Gail when Powell refers to "Christian religious right" does he include Catholics or is he reffering to other denominations esp envangelical? When you say "we" do you consider yourself part of the religious right? I think as Catholics in the last half a century our message to Islam has been overwhelmingly one of peace. I am somewhat confused as to what you are trying to say on this issue. Blessings

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), November 16, 2002.

I'm very divided on this one. And well I should be, because Islam itself is divided. As Cardinal Ratzinger said in an interview:

"Islam does not exist as one solid bloc. There is no Magisterium of Islam, nor a centralized Islamic constitution. The Koran furnishes certain common referents for the Islamic world. But it gives rise to different interpretations, and Islam becomes concrete within very diverse cultural contexts, from Indonesia to India, from the Middle East to Africa. Therefore, the Islamic world is not a bloc and it does not erase national temperaments: there are countries with an Islamic majority which are extremely tolerant and others that exclude Christianity to a greater or lesser degree."

In this respect, I think that Mr. Powell does well to denounce the particular kind of hatred that is brewing in the Christian right--namely, the misplaced, self-destructive, effigy-burning, shrill tones of televangelists and the like, that totally disregards the authentic Christian mission of proclaiming (and living!) the Gospel.

That said, from a Christian perspective, there is good criticism of the Islam religion, and there is good criticism of the Arab world, and they are not entirely seperate but they are not one and the same thing, either.

-- Skoobouy (skoobouy@hotmail.com), November 16, 2002.

Hi Kiwi:

I think Powell directed his comments at Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell (fundamentalists) who, along with other "fundamental leaders" have been beating the war drums against Islam. Their speech is counter-evangelistic to say the least. I have been hearing their rhetoric on the radio lately, and from a fundamentalist friend of mine.

When I said 'we' I just meant in the very broad sense of the word. Just wanted to see what others think. I don't have one single Muslim friend, so how could I say! But I doubt whether it's fair to broad- brush every Muslim as being a radical war-monger, just like it's incorrect to say all Americans are "Christians."

Gotta go,

Gail

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), November 16, 2002.

Your general concepts on the answers are great. But we don't have to give pleasures for the muslims by showing our separation in each Christian beliefs. We all Christians believe in Jesus Christ and St. Mary for giving birth for the one who created us. That's the general concept. Our religion is so pure and peaceful but their religion is so dirty inside always influencing murder. Do you think God says kill if one don't accept what you say or teach. Anyway American Government make mistake all the time. It should not trust the Arabs or Muslims. How could you trust or protect something dirty? A dirt you can't clean at all. But waht i want to ask here is why the blacks in America are convering into Islam? I guess they wanted to show their original religion. But the first religion in Africa was Christian naming for example Ethiopia, the second country in the world to accept Christianity. So please Blacks in America, Islam is something dirty and untrue and even not original for you. There are a lot of proof for this concepts of reality.

-- Brook (anti_msm@yahoo.com), November 19, 2002.

I just read what Claire has just said and I disagree. We Muslims are not shy to show our hatred to Christians and Jews because of the way they mistreat us, they see a muslim and automatically the word "terrorist" comes to their minds. While they are busy judging Islam why don't they stop and look at the things they do wrong. Mr.Powell has no right to talk about Islam this way because believe me he does NOT know what he is talking about.

-- Layan Tariq Attari (layan@hotmail.com), September 06, 2003.

Jmj

Hello, Layan.
Please help me to know if I have understood you correctly. Did you just say that all Muslims hate all Jews and Christians? [Check your own words, which seem to say this: "We Muslims are not shy to show our hatred to Christians and Jews".]
Or did you mean that SOME Muslims hate ALL or SOME Jews and Christians?
Or did you mean that YOU personally hate ALL or SOME Jews and Christians?
Please be exact, so that I know where your mind and heart are.

You wrote: "Christians and Jews ... mistreat us, [and] they see a muslim and automatically the word 'terrorist' comes to their minds."

You are wrong, showing grave prejudice. I am an American Christian. For nine years, I have been living in a large apartment building shared by people of at least three races and multiple religions, including Islam. Through these years, I have encountered many Muslims, but not even once has it happened that "automatically the word 'terrorist'" came to my mind. I recommend that you discard your paranoia and also stop hating Jews and Christians (if you do).

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), September 07, 2003.

I think it is healthy - insofar as Bush is a Protestant and has a "bully pulpit" to rein in his Protestant brethren from overstepping their boundaries... it's an old temptation to soldify one's rank and file by directing their attention to foreign foes and devils.

This doesn't mean there's not a time and place for informing ones congregation of millions of people and their leaders' hatred and incomprehension of the Christian faith... it would do alot of Protestants alot of good to face the dilemna of Islam: how do you evangelize a people who don't believe in Original Sin, and don't see a need for a Savior? How do you deal with people whose belief is so different and violent?

This is the dilema the early and middle Church experienced in the times of the Barbarian invasions and later in response to Islam wiping out all of North Africa, attacking the Bzantine empire and engaging in annual pirate raids on Southern Europe.... and after exhaustive efforts to evangelize, eventually it lead to the Crusades.

Now most Protestants - being woefully uneducated in world history - will poo poo those "evil" Catholic popes who launched crusades. But now they're positing the same type of response: "conquer, colonize, and Christianize 'em". I find it highly ironic.

I'm NOT saying that everything we do is right and everyone else is wrong...but our Church has had to face all these things before and we tried many solutions to the problem and are still striving to find some solution... so the general public's rush to condemn the Church for hip and shallow reasons is all the more damnable: THEY (OUR CRITICS) HAVEN'T THOUGHT THINGS THROUGH, IN CONTEXT, AND IN FACT.

Maybe the Crusades were "wrong" - at least the 2nd through the 5th crusades...but the 1st was right - and so were the Spanish crusades leading up to the reconquest in 1492... before you throw bricks, you'd better do your homework

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), September 08, 2003.