Burning copies of the Qur'an! By: Mohamed S. Kamel

Burning copies of the Qur'an!

Mixed feelings of joy and sadness

By: Mohamed S. Kamel*

Montreal, September 11^th, 2010

Noone is announcing September 11, 2010 as international burn the Qur’an day.  He and his church of 50 members are spreading their ignorance and hatred by burning copies of the Qur’an, the Holy Book. Weather he does it or not, the damage has been done.

This church that is spreading it’s teachings in Africa and Latin America as well as the United States, believes their direct connection to the Holy Spirit gives them an authority that is beyond ordinary accountability or argumentation. The Noone, a fundamentalist Christian, calls for public action against Islam.

We still remember when some members of these extremist groups sent their children to the area schools on the first day of classes with t-shirts emblazoned with the church's motto, "Islam is of the Devil." The children were sent home by school authorities, and media coverage followed.

Did any of them read it? In his word: "I have no experience with it whatsoever. I only know what the Bible says." I don’t think that he knows anything about what the Bible says!

Are those that flushed a copy of the Qur'an down the toilet in Guantanamo Bay, the illegal prison, members of this church? It is not necessary, but for sure they are all part of the new extreme right wing that if given the chance will be worse than the Nazis. They are the same group who called for the killing of all Muslims, denying them the right for mosques.  They are also the creators and the promoters of Islamophobia.      

Many are protesting his action on different levels;

The archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore, Pakistan, described the plan to burn the book as "contrary to the respect owed all religions and against our doctrine and faith."

The Noone plan is a return to the Mongol-Tatar era, when burning books was the answer to difference and a symbol of intention to deny people’s existence and destroy their future.

It was more than 800 years ago when the Tatar burned the Baghdad Library and then came Bush, in another Tatar campaign to burn Baghdad, the entire city. 

And Noone is the new Julius Caesar who burned the great Ptolemic library in Alexandria in the year 48 BC. The same library, its daughter library, had been destroyed in 389 AD as a result of an edict by the Emperor Theodosius.

Or he is the new Noone, tried to be the new Nero who burned Rome in 64 AD?

Our new Nero, as well as those of his liking never read history, and if it happened that they read it, they never understood it. The Baghdad Library after the earlier burn came back stronger and Baghdad became the new capital of civilization.  And Baghdad will rise again after the recent burn.

Alexandria and Rome as well came out stronger and played major positive roles in history and their burners have been denounced in every corner.  Did humanity lose something by these burns?  Yes, they lost years of knowledge but since then it has been recovered.         

This Noone is a real ignorant, but this ignorance is not limited to him.  His title and ignorance has been shared by officials in the NATO, White House, and Canadian governments.  Their comments were restricted to the so called “...the safety of our troops in Afghanistan...” and “..recruitment bonanza for al-Qaeda...”

Another layer of ignorance has been added, so he can burn the Qur’an as long as his act will not endanger the safety of our troops. Let me repeat my well know position, our troops will be safe at home, our troops are not fighting for the wellbeing of humanity, our troops are occupying other people’s lands, killing children and women indiscriminately.

Does the image of burning copies of the Holy Qur’an endanger our troops, more than the images of burning women and children in Baghdad, Afghanistan and Palestine? These killings have been going on for decades, some by our own hands, some by our troops, some by our support and financial aid and others by our silence.

Those people are always looking for a group to discriminate against.  They discriminated against the black, the Jewish, earlier the Japanese... and now the Muslims.

But why did this ignorance bring me a mixed feeling of joy and sadness?

I am very sad that we are in the 21^st century and we are still practicing discrimination. We don’t read, we are practicing racial profiling and we are accepting ignorance and prejudgment.  We don’t use the knowledge acquired to help humanity but rather to destroy it.

Joy has been mixed with sadness due to my optimistic nature.  Joy is arising from the fact that those hate lead groups are losing the battle by imagining that they can burn the knowledge.  

  

The Noone said, "If God told us to do it" -- burn the Korans -- "then I guess he could tell us to do something different.” So we are waiting for other surprises from his imaginary God.

Baghdad, Alexandria and Rome have been born again stronger and played a real role in our current civilization, and history flushed down their burners.

* Mohamed S. Kamel: is a Freelance writer, the editor of I.N. Daily, he is a professional engineer, a LEED Green Associate and a recognized project manager professional, he is a co-founder of the Canadian Egyptian for Democracy (CEFD), Alternative Perspective Media (APM-RAM), , Quebec Antiwar movement “Échec à la Guerre”, Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine “CJPP”  and ex-president and co-founder of the Canadian Muslim Forum. He could be reached at public@mohamedkamel.com

Please notice that I omitted the Noone’s name to be sure that I don’t give him the publicity he is looking for and I will leave it to you and history to judge him and his actions.