BURNING QUR’ANS: A CROWDED HOUSE RESPONSE

Christians in the Crowded House Church, Broomhall, UK, responded in the following way to the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainsville, Florida, who wanted to burn copies of the Qur’an this Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

As part of the Crowded House Network and a new missional church network in South Africa, I want to express the same sentiments.

We are horrified by the news that the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainsville, Florida has announced that it will burn copies of the Qur’an this Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The stated purpose of this action is to raise awareness of the ideology and teaching of Islam and to warn against its dangers.

We condemn burning the Qur’an, for the following reasons:

1. We do not agree with many aspects of Islam. But we believe that the Biblical and Christ-like way to disagree is by speaking the truth in the power of God’s love, and by showing love to Muslim people even when they are hostile to us. We believe it is not justified to destroy the book that Muslims regard as sacred, even though we disagree with its contents.
2. Burning books only shows that there are extreme religious people who don’t care about the wider consequences of their actions. They don’t value human dignity and life which are God-given. Only God has the right to give and to take away human dignity and life.
3. No-one reading the life and teachings of Jesus (Isa) in the Injil could justify this burning. Burning the Qur’an is NOT a Christian action. It has been condemned by Christians all around the world.
4. This action will be the action of one man – the leader of a tiny extreme group – but it may be misused by militants in many countries to distort the wonderful message of Jesus Christ in the Bible and to cause terrible harm to followers of Jesus in many countries.
5. The Bible tells us to speak the good news of Jesus to others “with gentleness and respect” and it is a message of reconciliation. Burning the Qur’an is deliberately offensive and may have the effect of further dividing communities.

For these reasons we urge the Dove World Outreach Centre and its supporters to repent and NOT to burn any Qur’ans on the anniversary of 9/11.

Please understand that followers of Jesus do not approve of this burning. Please don’t let this divide our communities any more.  We may profoundly disagree with each other over very important things. If so, let us speak passionately, strongly and lovingly to each other, but leave the judgement and sentence to the one true God who is the perfect Judge of all.

We are praying:

• that the Qur’ans will not be burnt;
• that followers of Jesus Christ show the love of Christ to Muslim peoples here in Broomhall and all around the world;
• and also that Muslim people show restraint in their response, if the burning happens.

May God be glorified.

Here is a helpful site for stories and copies of the Injil and the whole scriptures in Arabic and English

Click for link

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~ by Colin on September 11, 2010.