Quran Burning Debate Shows Double Standard

Quran Burning Debate Shows Double Standard

One could almost hear an audible sigh of relief when Pastor Terry Jones and members of the Dove World Outreach Center announced they would not burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The threat of this small independent church in Gainesville, Fla., to burn the Muslim holy book had become a worldwide issue. Demonstrations against the action were held in several nations where Muslims make up a majority of the population. President Obama called the action a “recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida.” Gen. David Petraeus warned it “could cause significant problems” for American troops he leads in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

On Sept. 9, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Jones and asked him not to go through with the Quran burnings. Obviously the action’s consequences could have been severe. The decision not to follow through with the burnings was both wise and prudent.

But almost overlooked in the ferment over the threat to burn copies of the Quran is the double standard that American society, and most of the world, practices when it comes to Islam and Christianity.

On Sept. 7, a group of Baptist leaders held a news conference in Washington, where they declared, “We stand by the principle that to attack any religion in the United States is to do violence to the religious freedom of all Americans.” We agree. Religious freedom is for all Americans, not just those who happen to be among the majority.

Referencing the church’s threat, the group added, “As religious leaders, we are appalled by such disrespect for a sacred text that for centuries, has shaped many of the great cultures of our world and that continues to give spiritual comfort to more than a billion Muslims today.”

Again we agree. Jesus taught believers to love God and their neighbors as themselves. His command, as well as the principle of religious liberty for all, should teach us that there is no justification for burning or desecrating anyone’s sacred religious text.

But here we ask a question. Where were these voices when the deputy mayor of Or-Yehuda, Israel, organized students to burn several hundred copies of the New Testament in May 2008? Or when the deputy mayor went on Israeli radio and TV giving interviews about the campaign?

Where were the voices of Christians, Jews and Muslims to protest the “disrespect” for Christians’ sacred text?

In May 2009, the U.S. military seized the private property of an airman stationed at the U.S. air base in Bagram, Afghanistan. The property consisted of about 200 Bibles printed in Pashto and Dari, the two primary languages of the area. The airman said his church in the United States had raised money, printed the Bibles and sent them to him to distribute if he had opportunity.

The military defended the seizure, calling it “force protection,” and burned the Bibles. Interestingly at least one Baptist at the news conference publically chided the airman for “proselytizing by the military.” He had nothing to say about the military’s “disrespect” for the sacred text of his own faith.

Last Halloween, a Baptist church in North Carolina burned Bibles it considered heresies — anything but the King James Version — and America winked at it. The Washington Post gave the event a small inside story. Type in “Bible burning” on YouTube, and one can see an array of videos in which people burn Bibles for a variety of reasons. One person even campaigns in favor of Bible burnings because the Bible is “babble.” Where is the outcry over “disrespect” for Christians’ sacred text?

This double standard has been around for decades. In the 1980s, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) used taxpayer money to support artists producing what have to be described as blasphemous works. One of the more notorious was a work by Andres Serrano. It was a photograph of a crucifix submerged in a transparent container filled with urine. Another was David Wojnarowicz’s painting of Christ with a crown of thorns on His head and a drug needle stuck in His arm.

The then-head of the NEA admitted the works were “repulsive or blasphemous” but argued they “sought deeper meanings.”

When Christians attempted to express their pain at seeing such depictions of their Savior and the mocking way their faith was treated, defenders accused them of trying to “hold all artists to one standard of belief.” Defenders argued loud and long for freedom of artistic expression and speech.

One said, “If the United States does not allow tolerance, our fragile democracy will fly apart like … Yugoslavia.”

That concern for tolerance was not evidenced in 2009 when Yale University edited out images of 12 cartoons of Muhammad from a scholarly book titled “The Cartoons That Shook the World” by Jytte Klausen. The cartoons were originally published by a Danish newspaper in 2005. Reaction in the Muslim world was violent. More than 100 people were killed in demonstrations. Danish embassies were set ablaze in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

Klausen sought to examine the event from a scholarly viewpoint, but university officials would not allow the cartoons to be printed. Officials said they feared reprinting the cartoons could result in further violence. Concerns from academic organizations about free speech and giving in to perceived intimidation fell on deaf ears.

Interestingly one of the newspapers that reprinted the cartoons later apologized to any Muslim offended by them. Can anyone imagine a newspaper apologizing for printing a cartoon that offended Christians’ spiritual sensitivities?

The double standard is here in Alabama. In one school district, a Muslim mother complained about a song her child learned at school and the song was dropped. A Christian mother’s concern about a book her child was asked to read was met with ridicule by officials of the same district.

Religious freedom is important. Freedom of speech is important. Tolerance is important. But these principles should be equally applied to those whose religion is in the majority and those of minority faiths. A double standard is not right, not even in the face of violence.