-Caveat Lector- http://www.bankindex.com/_private/print.asp?ID=1544
PRINT THIS ARTICLE E-MAIL THIS ARTICLE ''Here's to you, Rev. Robertson, hey hey hey!'' By Yusuf Agha YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States) (YellowTimes.org) � Dear Rev. Robertson, Last Friday, after a month of religious fasting, I said my Eid prayers in a tiny mosque tucked away in a small New England hamlet, accompanied by a few hundred other Muslim men, women and children. Outside lay a blissful meadow covered with a blanket of fresh white snow. We prayed for peace in America and the Muslim world overcast by the specter of war -- Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, Afghanistan -- and for peace on earth. As always, we prayed for our families and our prophets, for that thread of personages that stretches from Adam to Abraham, Moses through Jesus, culminating at Muhammad (bless them all). I drove home listening to the songs of those soothsayers of peace, Simon and Garfunkel, on my car radio. With the beautiful, lilting music of yesteryear in the background, Reverend, I dwelt on the unkind words you had said about Muhammad - - the only prophet in the long lineage that separates the Muslims from the Christians -- and Islam. God bless you, please, Rev. Robertson, Heaven holds a place for those who pray (Hey hey hey, hey hey hey). Here's what you said, Reverend: "There is no doubt that the religion of Muhammad and those who adhere to it firmly � is extreme and violent." You claimed Islam is a "monumental scam" and that prophet Muhammad was "an absolute wild-eyed fanatic ... a robber and brigand ... a killer." You proclaimed that "the Koran teaches that the end of the world will not come until every Jew is killed by Muslims." Not to be left behind, your friend, Reverend Falwell, chimed in to call the Prophet Muhammad a terrorist, as well. Words are dangerous, you see, they echo and they swell. The Secretary of State rejects your kind of loathing, Mr. Robertson. General Powell says, "We will reject the kind of comments ... where people in this country say that Muslims are responsible for the killing of all Jews, and who put out hatred. This kind of hatred must be rejected." And so does President Bush, who visited the Islamic Center in Washington earlier this week. After kindly removing his shoes on entering the mosque, Mr. Bush praised Islam for inspiring "countless individuals to lead lives of honesty, integrity, and morality." Previously, the President had called Islam "a religion of peace," and said that Islam affirms God's justice and insists on man's moral responsibility. In view of these conflicting statements, I thought I should get to know you a little better: We'd like to know A little bit about you For our files. We'd like to help you learn To help yourself. On the Internet, I found you snugly sandwiched between your brethren televangelists. There you were -- the gangs of four, twittering like birds-of-a-feather: Bakker, Falwell, Swaggart and Robertson. Let's leave Slurpin' Swaggart out of this, since he has found uses for his staff -- uses other than splitting the Red Sea: Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes. It's a little secret, Just the Swaggart affair. Most of all, you've got to hide it from the kids. Nor let us disturb Pastor Bakker (man of God) so comfortably curled up in a fetal position, serving his 45-year sentence for fraudulently selling time-shares: Where have you gone, Jim Baker-o? Tammy turns her lonely eyes to you (Ooo ooo ooo). Let's even gloss over Rev. Falwell, (God bless his little hostile takeover bid of the Bakker empire) who blames 9-11 on liberal groups in America. His attacks on Tinky- Winky, the purple male-voiced Teletubby, as being gay is a valid testimony of his state of mind: the Reverend's National Liberty Journal has warned that "his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay-pride symbol"! Coo coo ca-choo, Rev. Falwell, Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo wo wo). So that leaves you, Mr. Robertson: And the sign flashed out its warning in the words that it was forming. Writing in Hinduism Today, Valli J. Rajan finds that "It's not that unusual for Pat Robertson's daily Christian TV show, the '700 Club,' to portray other religions in less than a complimentary light. Jews, Muslims and occasionally Hindus are singled out for a scathing recounting of their spiritual errors." Mr. Rajan notes that in one of your shows, you labeled Hinduism as "demonic" and advocated keeping Hindus out of America. In the Sephardic News, S. Alfassa notes "Pat Robertson asserts that unconverted Jews will spend eternity in the Christian hell," and quotes you saying: "The Jews will cry out to the one they have so long rejected, and He will come in heavenly power to give them deliverance." In Liberia, you chose to bed with dictator Charles Taylor (whom the BBC calls " a ruthless political operator") to hunt for gold in the southeast Bukon Jedeh region, on a deal reportedly worth $48 million. While Liberia burned, you and Taylor fiddled in concert. Other friends from your past have included luminaries (and dictators) like 'Great Leopard' Mobutu of Zaire, Jorge Serrano of Guatemala, and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia -- the latter having enraptured you so completely that you swooned, "Wouldn't you love to have someone like that as President of the United States of America." You warned the people of Florida to beware hurricanes that would befall them like "messages of redemption" for allowing 'Gay Days.' In Edinburgh, you offended the Scots when you found Scotland a "rather dark land," too tolerant of gay people. There is that little matter of your televised tete-a-tete with Mr. Falwell with whom you vigorously "totally concur[ed]," when he blamed 9-11 -- not on Osama -- but on the lack of morality in the American people. "I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle," Mr. Falwell said, "the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America... I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen." So much hate, Mr. R! And that's only skimming the surface. May I, a non-Christian, remind you that Christianity is the religion of love and the Bible teaches you, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Romans 13:9)? After all, didn't Jesus say: "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). So here's to you, Rev. Robertson, Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo wo wo). Let me quote what the New King James Bible says about your affliction, Mr. R.: "But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes." (John 2:11). Pat -- or shall I just say: Hello Darkness, my old friend, I have come to talk with you again. You cannot blame all Islam -- a religion of 1.2 billion people -- for the incidents of terror that have occurred in the last 15 months. If you did, by the same token, you would have to call Christ a terrorist for what Hitler and his Christians did in Germany, or for the killings in Ireland. You would have to brand Gandhi and all his Hindus as 'terrorists' for the killings in Gujrat and the 1947 partition; you would have to call all Americans terrorists for the lynching of blacks in the south, all Russians and Chinese for the killings during the Stalinist and Maoist purges, and the world-wide body of Jews for the deaths in Palestine. You just can't generalize, Pat. When it comes to Muhammad personally, here's what Courtney Rice wrote last week in the John Hopkins Newsletter: "Muhammad believed strongly in the importance of treating every race equally, and he felt that it was important to know and appreciate our differences. He called for the right of self-determination within his territories, allowing people of other religions to practice in peace. Perhaps most striking were Muhammad's laws for warfare. His soldiers were told not to harm civilians, livestock, crops or trees and to protect women and children." In conclusion, Ms. Rice asks: "Does this sound like a terrorist to you?" And the sign said 'The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls�' You say: "The Koran teaches that the end of the world will not come until every Jew is killed by Muslims." That quote of yours bothers me, Pat. Can you please cite chapter and verse for me? " I have read the Koran often, and I just couldn't find it -- because it's just not there. Let's not say you are a liar, Pat: just plain ignorant. Here's what someone who is not ignorant has to say about Islam. This is a quote from the scholar Bernard Lewis: "Islam is one of the world's great religions... Islam has brought comfort and peace of mind to countless millions of men and women. It has given dignity and meaning to drab and impoverished lives. It has taught people of different races to live in brotherhood and people of different creeds to live side by side in reasonable tolerance." One last observation from the Internet about you, Pat. It's from a gentleman called Doubting Dave: "One of God's many miracles, if indeed one MUST invoke god in discussing miracles, is that Pat Robertson's foot formed, or was created, to fit so perfectly in his mouth." In conclusion, Pat, let me give you a word of advice. If you can't say something good about someone, don't say anything at all. Just maintain -- you know -- The sound of silence. [Yusuf Agha is a historian who also dabbles in Information Technology. He reads extensively and has an interest in the visual and performing arts. He has resided in the United States for over two decades, loves its people and the land, but is still trying to figure out whom the government represents.] Yusuf Agha encourages your comments: [EMAIL PROTECTED] YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication. YellowTimes.org encourages its material to be reproduced, reprinted, or broadcast provided that any such reproduction identifies the original source, http://www.YellowTimes.org. Internet web links to http://www.YellowTimes.org are appreciated. CLICK BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL ARTICLES Written by Yusuf Agha--Posted 12/12/2002 Click here for More... Home Page In The News What's New? What's Hot? <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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