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Greetings from the Islamic Society of North America!
Respecting the QurÂ’an
Ingrid Mattson, PhD
President
The Islamic Society of North America
Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician who broke with a mainstream national
party to form his own extreme-right, anti-immigrant platform. Wilders has
directed most of his hatred in recent years at Muslims. Wilders has called for
the QurÂ’an to be banned and in the last few months has been promoting his
“documentary” attacking the Qur’an. Wilders has intimated that the documentary
will show a copy of the QurÂ’an being desecrated or destroyed.
Geert Wilders wants the QurÂ’an to be banned. Many Muslims want WildersÂ’ film
to be banned. Wilders wants Muslims out of “his country” and to be denied the
rights of other citizens to practice their faith. No doubt, many Dutch Muslims
wish that Wilders would just go away (and Wilders has received threats of
violence from some). Neither Wilders nor these Muslims will (or should) get
what they want. Now what?
Many have looked to this situation only through the lense of the law. News
articles have focused on threats made to WildersÂ’ life and the calls to ban his
film. Of course, the threats are unacceptable and criminal. Wilders should be
afforded the full protection of the law and those threatening violence against
his person should be prosecuted.
As for the right of freedom of speech, WildersÂ’ film should be treated like
other statements within Dutch law. The Netherlands, like most other countries,
has certain restrictions on speech that is defamatory, libelous or insults a
group of people based on their race or religion. The Dutch Prime Minister has
publicly stated that if the film, once released, is judged to have violated the
law, then his government has the duty to enforce their legislation. This
treatment of Dutch Muslims as equal citizens under the law shows to the Muslim
world that the Netherlands is not an enemy to Islam.
My plea is that we also need to look at this issue more broadly so we can
find better ways of living together in a world in which there will always be
people whose views and beliefs we find odd or even obnoxious. We should not
justify or excuse extremism of any kind, whether they are racist and hateful
attacks on the Muslim community or vigilante violence by Muslims against those
who make such statements. What we should try to understand is why some
otherwise ordinary people feel caught in the middle, and are sometimes
attracted, in part, to the emotional appeals of the extremists.
In the last few decades most societies in the world have gone through
enormous transitions. Many European countries have had to give up significant
symbols of their national sovereignty to join the European Union and even those
who did not join the EU have seen significant changes in their societies due to
globalization. Even those who have benefited economically and in other ways
from these changes are sometimes are troubled by the loss of traditional forms
of communal solidarity and culture: local farmersÂ’ markets, church pews filled
with families on a Sunday morning, neighborhood bakeries and craftsmen;
landscapes, streetscapes and the rhythm of life have changed. Perhaps each
generation has a limited capacity for change, or perhaps none of us, as
progressive as we claim to be, can help but romanticize the society of our
youth.
An increased presence of Muslims in Europe, while part of this change, is not
the cause of all these changes. Muslims did not cause a decline in attendance
at European churches; they were not responsible for the fact that some churches
have been turned into museums or bars. Muslims did not cause the declining
birth-rate in many European societies. But the fact that Muslims are building
mosques and attending religious services in higher numbers than European
Christians, and that many Muslims have larger families than most European
Christian families, makes Muslims easy targets of scapegoating. Europe has
seen this kind of ethnic hatred before in its history. Financially-successful
Jews were for many centuries viewed with jealously and resentment by some
European Christians. Read more
For more information contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
P.O. Box 38 Plainfield, IN 46168, USA | Phone: (317) 839-8157 | Fax:
(317) 839-1840
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sufficient to write all the blessings provided to us.
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