“Children of Israel! Call to mind the special favor which I bestowed upon you, and fufil your Covenant with me as I fufil My Covenant with you, and fear none but me.”
Sound familiar? It’s from the Bible, right? Nope. The Torah? Wrong again. It’s the Koran. While others have been threatening to burn the holy book of Islam, I’ve taken the opportunity to read it. Here’s another one:
“That they said (in boast) ‘We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Apostle of God’; but they killed him not… Nay, God raised him up unto Himself; and God is Exalted in Power, Wise.”
I know what you’re thinking. That must be from the Bible. Sorry. It’s the Koran again.
In the caophany of idiocy that the 24-hour media cycle produces, simple truths are lost. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are three religions, bound together by their basic foundations. All three speak of Abraham and Moses. All three speak of God’s covenant with Israel. All three are inherently decent and peaceful sources of religious and moral guidance, yet it sometimes seems that only two of these religions are accepted with open arms by society. When these basics are forgotten or neglected, that’s when irrational fear takes hold of society.
Those basics, however, can be the key to creating understanding in our society and can most easily be taught within these halls. English teachers have lessons on the Bible, the Torah and literature from the Islamic world. The Koran more than deserves its place among those works, not only as the single most influential book ever, providing a foundation to a religion more than a billion strong, but also for being a simply beautiful text. We live in a pluralistic society, made up of many gropus, many peoples and many beliefs. Humility and the hope of a better tomorrow can begin in these halls if only we learn that not only educational lessons, but moral ones as well. Only when we understand our Islamic brothers and sisters can we truly, as a society of religious plurality, be at peace with one another.
Loading ...
