By Rod Benson
Yesterday was the 11th of September, and in the United States, as I speak, it is still the ninth anniversary of those tragic events of 9/11 in New York and Washington DC that changed our world. To mark the event, the pastor of a small church in Florida has announced that he would set fire to copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, to – as he put it – “send a message to al-Qaeda.”
That turned him into an international pariah, fuelling protests in Muslim nations, igniting a media frenzy, and sparking strong statements from political, military and religious leaders. Even the Reverend Fred Nile expressed his “total opposition and condemnation” of what he saw as “a most dangerous and provocative act” which had “no place in Christianity and none in our society.”
The Florida pastor would do well to consider the words of Jesus, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12).
Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 12 September 2010. Image: http://bit.ly/aiPX3h
