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Archive: August 22, 2010 - August 28, 2010
Only Imam Rauf can solve this problem
Only Imam Rauf can resolve this situation. New York Governor David Paterson proposed to help him out by finding a different location for the center. The Catholic Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, endorsed that plan. Rauf should take them up on the offer.
By Ronald Rychlak | August 27, 2010; 12:16 PM ET | Comments (0)
Graham raises questions about conversion with assertion that Obama is a Muslim
President Obama is a Christian. But what if he had been a Muslim and converted to Christianity? Would he not be a "true" Christian? That seems to be what the Rev. Franklin Graham is saying.
By Sally Quinn | August 27, 2010; 9:13 AM ET | Comments (14)
Is Islam a primary driver or cause of terrorism?
Islam, like all world religions, neither supports nor requires illegitimate violence.
By John Esposito | August 27, 2010; 8:55 AM ET | Comments (10)
Why don't women have more rights in Muslim countries?
No one should be complacent about the condition of women in many Muslim (or many Western) societies. Americans certainly are not.
By John Esposito | August 27, 2010; 8:50 AM ET | Comments (2)
What's a Muslim to do? What's a president to do?
Presumably many of the same people who criticized Obama for his affiliation with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Christian church during the campaign are now calling him a Muslim. More than a third of people who identify themselves as conservative Republicans believe Obama to be Muslim, according to the Pew research. Clearly, they don't see the Muslim moniker as a compliment.
By Sally Quinn | August 26, 2010; 4:12 PM ET | Comments (24)
Imam's silence allows malice to fester
Mass hysteria intrinsically is unreasonable and irrational. The imam and his allies do have the power to take the high road; the power to end this tragic sideshow by considering other sites. It is an unfortunate choice to have to make, but silence is not the answer.
By Aseem Shukla | August 26, 2010; 3:09 PM ET | Comments (34)
Imam Rauf can learn from Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice," King said. Believe it.
By Valerie Elverton Dixon | August 26, 2010; 2:59 PM ET | Comments (1)
Do words cause wars?
If the West wants to end the war of words, we should seriously enjoin every Arab country to reform its educational system and move toward democracy. I'm not saying anything new. But by continuing the endless cycle of provocation that has marked Mideast history in the postwar era, both sides act as if consciousness-raising isn't an issue
By Deepak Chopra | August 26, 2010; 2:20 PM ET | Comments (4)
We all must speak out to counter anti-Muslim prejudice
Turn off the hate-spewing commentators and go out and meet your neighbors. Practice the tolerance, love and compassion that every religion at its best preaches. Remember--if we fail to support the right of any one religion to meet, worship and educate, our own rights are jeopardized.
By Starhawk | August 26, 2010; 11:26 AM ET | Comments (32)
Challenging beginnings
So as we begin the year ask yourself, "When is the last time I did something for the first time?" Don't let the challenge of beginning stop you from embracing the thrill of newness.
By Erica Brown | August 26, 2010; 9:16 AM ET | Comments (0)
Group cannot be held responsible for actions of a few
As a culture, and a nation we cannot laud the idea of religious freedom when it is convenient for us, and then disregard those values later on when it doesn't meet our political or religious ends.
By Graylan S. Hagler | August 26, 2010; 9:04 AM ET | Comments (3)
Imam Rauf should apologize
Rauf must apologize for both spreading the same propaganda that fuels terror and reopening the wounds of 9/11. If he does not, Americans will continue to reject him and his mosque.
By Jordan Sekulow | August 26, 2010; 7:09 AM ET | Comments (61)
Religious liberty should prevail near Ground Zero
My view of the Ground Zero matter is that religious liberty--that is, the right to build the center at the proposed site--is of such paramount importance in American and global life that the project should go forward
By Jon Meacham | August 25, 2010; 2:12 PM ET | Comments (36)
Silent clergy no new thing
While I still prickle a bit at the thought of a mosque going up so near Ground Zero, I wish that the rabid, anti-Muslim rhetoric and activity would stop.
By Susan K. Smith | August 25, 2010; 7:01 AM ET | Comments (4)
Essential questions for Cordoba in 2010
Essential facts about the implications of 'Cordoba.'
By Willis E. Elliott | August 24, 2010; 8:25 PM ET | Comments (6)
A chance at greatness
If Americans are to believe in a Western Islam, they have a right to be reassured that the past experience of Christians in Islamic lands will not be repeated.
By John Mark Reynolds | August 24, 2010; 7:10 PM ET | Comments (1)
Imam Rauf: take a lesson from Pope John Paul II
Think of the potential for hope and healing, silencing of skeptics, and promotion of peace if only Imam Rauf would do the "right" thing by not exercising his right to build an Islamic Center at the geographic center of such a sore spot in our nation's heart.
By Danielle Bean | August 24, 2010; 3:35 PM ET | Comments (4)
Silence is not moderation
The true scandal here is that Muslim moderates have been so abysmally lacking in candor about the nature of their faith and so slow to disavow its genuine (and growing) pathologies--leading perfectly sane and tolerant people to worry whether Muslim moderation even exists.
By Sam Harris | August 24, 2010; 2:48 PM ET | Comments (100)
Christians should follow Jesus on mosque debate
Jesus told his followers what to do when facing hatefulness. He said, "Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you...And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them" (Luke 6:27-31). Jesus was saying take a surprising initiative to break the cycle of conflict. Do what your enemies don't expect. Change the status quo.
By Robert Parham | August 24, 2010; 8:55 AM ET | Comments (6)
Imam Rauf must speak to improve US-Muslim relations
The benefits from his center are local, but the detriments are global. I believe that continuation of the Park51 crisis is doing tremendous harm to Islam and Muslims in America, and to America's image in the world. It is clearly undermining the prospects of improving US-Muslim relations.
By Muqtedar Khan | August 23, 2010; 10:13 PM ET | Comments (5)
Ask Muslims for help with image problem
Rauf should say, "Right now more than 2/3 of Americans are against this project I'm trying to make happen. Not all of them are ignorant bigots. We need to stop giving the ones who aren't reasons to agree with the ones who are."
By Jason Poling | August 23, 2010; 6:43 PM ET | Comments (3)
American religious freedom real and enviable
I would advise him to speak to the Muslim world about the real and enviable religious freedom we have in America.
By Herb Silverman | August 23, 2010; 5:45 PM ET | Comments (6)
Rauf (and all religious people) should speak to those who distort the tradition
Any faith can be twisted, misused, and made into a tool of oppression, hatred, and violence, but that if one looks at the core of the great Wisdom Traditions of the world such as Islam, much that is life-affirming and salvific can be found.
By Max Carter | August 23, 2010; 4:32 PM ET | Comments (3)
All traditions teach against violence
"We intend to live the wisdom that God revealed to the Prophet, peace be upon him: That God created the human race as one family, through a single couple, to become many cultures and communities -- not so that we would hate and despise one another but so that we would come to know and understand each other. (Quran 49:13)"
By Arthur Waskow | August 23, 2010; 3:29 PM ET | Comments (0)
Imam Rauf should not be held responsible for controversy
This controversy and the senseless idea of remembering 9/11 by burning the Koran proves to the Muslim world that we are arrogant and expect the world to kiss our feet.
By Arun Gandhi | August 23, 2010; 2:52 PM ET | Comments (4)
Don't deny Rauf's true intentions
Our enemies are using our Constitution and religious pluralism against us. They have a plan to infiltrate us, build mosques and ultimately impose Sharia Law. They say so. They mean so. People who are in denial about this are dupes and self-deluded.
By Cal Thomas | August 23, 2010; 2:46 PM ET | Comments (15)
The world is filled with boys who can shave
Men, you are to be creators and cultivators. God is a creator and a cultivator and you were made to image him. Create a family and cultivate your wife and children. Create a ministry and cultivate other people. Create a business and cultivate it. Be a giver, not a taker, a producer and not just a consumer. Stop looking for the path of least resistance and start running down the path of greatest glory to God and good to others because that's what Jesus, the real man, did.
By Mark Driscoll | August 22, 2010; 2:29 PM ET | Comments (77)
