In the last few weeks leading up to the 9th anniversary of 9/11/01 we followed the Quran burning threat and condemned those who would do such a thing in the name of Jesus.

Since then we have also followed the protests and deaths of Muslims in Kashmir rioting over the burning that did take place, and the subsequent persecution of Christians in that region.

We distain those who would disrespect the sacred writings of others and also hope for equal treatment for our own sacred book the Bible.

The Muslims in  particular are very vigilant in standing up for the Quran and responding to even imagined slights. In the Middle East, Christians who have accidently dropped a Quran in the dust have been dealt with severely. But what about equal respect for the religion of others in the Muslim community? What about equal respect and treatment of Bibles in the Middle East? Well not so much.

Over the last few years we have written about many occasions where Muslims have broken into churches and have burned books including Bibles with little or no controversy or even coverage in the West. Authorities in Iran actually burned hundreds of Bibles in May and the Western press didn’t bother to even note it.

Unfortunately poor treatment of the sacred books and places of others is a storied tradition in the Muslim community particularly in the Middle East. Who can forget the destruction of the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan or the desecration of the Church of the Nativity.

Lest you think that this is just a modern phenomena here is the proclamation of an early Islamic authority that the Bible and the Torah is suitable for use as toilet paper:

 Ash-Shams[ad-Din] Ar-Ramli [d.1004 A.D.] said in [his book of fiqh] Nihayat al-Muhtaj:

"It is impermissible to use respected books like those of hadith and fiqh for anal cleansing after defecation (al-istinja’ ), but non-respected books like philosophy, Torah and the New Testament, which are known as corrupt and which do not contain exalted names, can be used for anal cleansing after defecation."

There you have it, not exactly equal treatment is it? Nevertheless I continue to believe that Christians should respect the sacred scriptures and places of others including the Quran and remember to follow the clear teaching of Jesus to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.             *Top of the Blog

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