I recently received an email from a dear friend of mine, that was a forward of his response to an email thread regarding a Muslim prayer gathering on Capitol Hill. The email thread began, basically, with bigotry and ignorance and quickly went down from there to bigotry, ignorance, intolerance, and blind nationalism (which any Awesomizer reader knows is a favorite of mine). Thankfully my friend had the wherewithal to stand up to the ignorance and the gumption to send his rebuttal to everyone listed on the email thread. To quote him extensively, he says:
“This is a great time to reflect and ask yourself ‘who am I to judge?’ … I have never questioned my faith. Initially I questioned all others as I grew into maturity. I questioned Islam after 9/11. But rather than fear and attack the Islamic religion, I chose to learn more about it. I don’t agree with everything in the Qur’an just as I don’t agree with everything in the Bible. But ultimately, both religions were born from Judaism, a belief in one God who created the world and cares about the behavior and beliefs of human beings … So with your current stance on Muslims not being allowed to pray on National Prayer Day at the Capitol Building to me is a complete slap in the face to the Constitution and several amendments. Also, it shows a lack of follow-up. I checked in the USA Today, Washington Post and NY Times, and there is no story whatsoever of there being a “mass prayer” being held on the Capitol Hill steps. Perhaps the media is trying to protect “us” by not publishing or acknowledging that there was a prayer … But you can find 100′s of stories from bloggers, which you seem to have found as ‘truth’ … I am sick of the ignorance of this nation and supposed true ‘Christians’ towards Islam. We have unfortunately labeled Muslims as “Islamists”. The difference is night and day. Less than 1% of Muslims are the extreme Islamists, yet something as peaceful as a prayer on the steps of our Capitol seems to launch fools into standing against it. Thankfully, the most of the world has not judged ‘us’ on the Spanish Inquisition, Adolph Hitler (Christian) or Benito Mussolin (Catholic) … To answer your question where do I want to be when Judgment day comes, I know I will be able to say this. I will be standing with my family, and holding the hand of a dear friend of mine who is Muslim, and holding the other hand of a dear friend who is Hindu, I will stand beside my family and friends and together we will walk into the afterlife … If Muslims do ever choose to pray and you wish to stand against’, don’t forget to don your white hoods and take a burning cross for good measure … In closing, I would really appreciate it if you would stop sending me this filth. It is unbecoming of true Christians.”
I want to thank my friend to taking a standing and calling out the ignorance where he saw it. I have only one thing to add for all of those jackholes that are intent on standing against an attempt at a peaceful assembly of religious folks because those folks aren’t the “right” religion. If you can march on Washington to spread ignorance and intolerance like you did with the “Tea Party” (for any of you not familiar with this, check the Awesomizer post dealing with this event), then a group of people who are trying to spread the word of peace should be applauded for trying to do so, not railed against because “their” God is not “your” God.
God is God people. We’re the one’s who decided he/she/it was something different based on the books WE decided to write about him/her/it. Our words, not God’s words … always keep that in mind. Religion is a construct of the human mind and its will to control other human minds.
By the way, that line you “Christians” (and yes, I put that in quotes to signify that you are not really all that Christian) are so intent on keeping in our pledge of allegiance, “…one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all,” does not say “…one nation, under ‘our’ God (and not ‘your’ God), with liberty and justice for a few, select people who read the ‘right’ book about ‘our’ God.”
You are the ignorant, the intolerant, the hate mongers, the violent. You are what’s wrong with this country. Not those who are trying to spread the word of peace. Here’s a hint … before you start rallying against, try to learn about that which you rally against … and never, ever forget that the “Christian” history is as violent as anything else.
Thanks friend. You are one more solider in the fight against stupidity. You are a true Christian.
