In Theory

On Jan. 1, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement reporting two anti-Muslim hate incidents in Orange County. On New Year’s Day, a burned copy of the Koran was found at the back entrance of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa during Friday prayers there, CAIR reported. In Mission Viejo, the Muslim contribution to an interfaith holiday display was vandalized within the past month with someone posting the message: “No Islamic Lighthouses in the U.S.A.” As a religious leader in the community, how would you go about promoting peaceful interfaith relations and encouraging your congregants to refrain from targeting members of other religions with hateful messages?

I am the imam of the mosque in which the charred Koran was found. Without doubt, this incident was a deliberate hate crime against American Muslims and Muslims worldwide because it defiled their most sacred and precious scripture.

I was in the midst of the Friday prayer sermon (Friday prayer is the main day of public worship for Muslims), when the torched Koran was brought inside the mosque, in front of hundreds of worshipers, and placed in my hands. The scene was very sad and disturbing. Immediately, I called upon my congregation to exercise peace and calmness. Immediately, the subject of my sermon shifted directly to one of patience and forgiveness, and expressing further that the character of people is most defined when evil trials are upon them.

The hate crime that we experienced at our mosque affects not only Muslims but all people. Spewed hate is an enemy to all — secular citizens and religious followers.

To combat this evil and hatred there must exist among the interfaith communities, activist groups, social justice agencies and law enforcement bureaus a unified alliance of solidarity, support and commitment to oppose such violations.

We also need to want to know, learn to understand and respect people of other faiths. From personal experience, one of the best building tools in better understanding and unifying various faiths is by visiting, praying and breaking bread in different houses of worship.

Imam Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwani

Islamic Educational Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

This is heartbreaking news. I recently heard news that a friend/colleague of mine, who happens to be gay, went home after church to find a stone thrown through his window. When I hear of such hatred that manifests itself in violent acts, I feel those violations as though I, myself, were personally targeted. Each time a Koran Qur’an is desecrated, the Bible is desecrated. Each time a mosque is vandalized, so too is a church. Each time a gay couple is threatened, so should a straight couple feel threatened. These attacks upon people of the Muslim faith are ultimately an attack on all people of faith. Hatred has an effect upon us all.

As we approach Martin Luther King’s birthday I cannot help but reflect upon his words:, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Fear can instigate people to act without reason or conscience, but as I remind my congregation, we are of God and need not respond reactively with fear. We are called to bring peace: to transform our weapons into plowshares, to turn the other cheek, to love our neighbor as ourselves and further to love even our enemy. We stand in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters, we may not understand the depth of your pain, but we shall shoulder it with you.

The Rev. Sarah Halverson

Fairview Community Church

As a Bible-believing Christian pastor, my calling is to teach the Word of God to our people. It is God’s Holy Word that changes attitudes and gives us love for all people. Christianity is unique to all other religions in that it teaches that God is a God of love.

As an American I do not condone burning a copy of the Koran and leaving it on the back porch of a Muslim establishment because it is rude behavior. I would, however, be more sensitive to the complaints of CAIR if I heard them condemning Islamic terrorism as well as calling for tolerance.

If the facts were reversed and Christians were perpetrating these horrible acts of murder, I would be calling on Christians to immediately stop. I would examine my faith and ask myself if there was not something horribly wrong with my religion. Multiplied thousands of innocent people of all faiths have been murdered, and it is high time we got beyond the PC fluff and began to face the hard questions in our country.

Pastor Dwight Tomlinson

Liberty Baptist Church

A few years ago, in a predominantly Christian neighborhood, there was one Jewish family. It was Christmas/Hanukkah season and in the plethora of Christmas lights, there was, in one front window, a shining menorah. About 3 a.m., some thug broke the window and trampled the menorah on the front porch.

The community was outraged, and in two days, with the help of the NCCJ, there was a menorah in a window of nearly every home in the community! With this action, the people in this neighborhood said to the perpetrators of this despicable act: “You are by yourself. We stand united against you and your kind.”

We cannot assume that when evil is manifested against someone else, we can merely be grateful it wasn’t us. When bigotry raises its ugly head, all of the members of the community should lend encouragement and support to the offended people. We all need to purge our hearts of prejudicial thoughts and ideas that depreciate those whom we perceive to be different from us. When we hear or see things that diminish others, we need to speak out and be an example of righteous action.

Tom Thorkelson

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Let’s be truthful with ourselves. Part of us wants to find the people who did the damage to things we hold scared and get even, make them pay, hurt them, do violence to them. It’s natural. It’s human nature. If someone threatens something or someone we love, we go on the offensive. We want to attack, to defend, to make it right, to overwhelm them with force.

The way to God, however, is to meet every act of violence and hate, with an intentional act of kindness — toward those who were hurt, and even toward those who performed the vandalism. This is the hard work of faith. But every act of violence that we do in God’s name separates us from God.

Let us vow to follow the words of John Wesley: Do no harm, do as much good as you can, and love God.

Pastor Mark Wiley

Mesa Verde United Methodist Church

Those who desecrate the religious symbols of others are ignorant, frightened and possibly deranged. Unfortunately, many persons consider Islam to be a religion that tolerates, and even promotes, acts of gross violence. Daily we hear about innocent persons being murdered by “martyrs” bearing explosives into public conveyances. And, in civil matters, there are issues such as those of American women who are offended by the heavy restrictions against women in some Muslim countries. These perceptions lead to negative images and even hateful responses that further pollute the public environment.

Muslims, Jews and Christians need to make much greater efforts to understand one another. We Christians need to learn that Islam is not a religion of violence, though there are violent Muslims. The same can be said about Christians. When Protestants and Catholics in the north of Ireland were killing one another in great numbers, it was not Christian faith that promoted violence. Those who killed were acting in sinful violation of their professed faith.

It would be most helpful if the international Muslim leadership would make it absolutely clear that terrorism in the name of religion is sacrilegious and is to be totally condemned. Many non-Muslims are profoundly troubled that in some Islamic states religious law governs even non-Muslims. Minarets have every right to be in our American communities, subject to the same laws as any other structures regarding size, safety and sound impact. We need to talk to one another about very practical concerns that we all have.

The Western world has scant understanding as to why many in the Islamic world view us negatively and are even willing to commit suicide, killing others on the way, to demonstrate their anger. Military responses on our part will achieve little in the long run. Behavior changes when hearts are changed. This is our task. It is formidable. And it is urgent.

Msgr. Wilbur Davis

Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church,

Newport Beach

It can only be the followers of another religion that would get as emotionally charged against the Muslims as the Orange County hate incidents indicate. Fighting between various religions, each of which believe that theirs is the only true religion, can be a natural result of their teachings. All religions have the right to exist, as long as they are not harming others, but serious proselytizing as well as contrary beliefs can be resented. Some religious extremists even insist that those who don’t believe as they do should be destroyed. They are the ones that should be locked up.

Religious rules, as long as they follow the concept of the golden rule, are beneficial, but simply following the golden rule itself without a required belief in a particular religion would be better. It certainly is not necessary to join a religion in order to have a rich, fulfilling, and properly responsible life.

Jerry Parks

Member, Humanist Assn. of Orange County

For more responses, visit this story at www.dailypilot.com.