From the Nakba to the Tadnees-ul-Qur'an
| Khatib : |
Sadullah Khan |
| Khutbah No: |
150 |
| Khutbah Date: |
05/20/05 |
وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاء وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَلاَ يَزِيدُ الظَّالِمِينَ إَلاَّ خَسَارًاWe send down in the Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe: to the unjust it causes nothing but loss after loss. [Quran 17:82] The Nakba / Catastrophe Remembered This week (15 May), Palestinians commemorate their forced displacement and dispossession resulting from the establishment of the state of Israel (1948) and people of conscience all over the world recall the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages.More than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages.The land is still occupied and the atrocities continue leading to the deaths of many innocent people.
Tadnees / Desecration of the Qur’anWho among decent people would not be upset reading recent news report in
Newsweek about the desecration of their scriptures? Who among American citizens would not feel sad at the desecration of American values of decency and dignity in Guantanamo Bay by those who claimed to protect the American way of freedom of religion and respect for others? Lives were lost and Newsweek has become a whipping boy for the White House and the Pentagon.Though
Newsweek retracted their story on the Desecration of the Qur’an at Guantanamo Bay,
Newsweek wasn't the first media outlet to report on the trashing of the holy Islamic text by US military personal. The
Financial Times on June 28, 2004 also reported, Former prisoner Airat Vakhitov told ORT about alleged mistreatment while he was at Guantanamo.
'They tore the Koran to pieces in front of us, threw it into the toilet,NULL Vakhitov said. Take the August 5, 2004 report by
The Independent in London that reported ex-Guantanamo detainees, "Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul ... said
one inmate was threatened after being shown a video in which hooded inmates were forced to sodomise each other. Guards allegedly threw prisoners' Korans into toilets, while others were injected with drugs. ” Or how about a story by James Gordon Meek and Derek Rose for the
Daily News in New York published the same day as
The Independent's story, where they reported that Asif Iqbal, writing of his time at Guantanamo lamented,
"They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it. " Mohammes Mazouz states:
'The Americans [interrogators] went [through procedures] to humiliate us and flout our most elementary principles. It concerns the treatment inflicted to the Quran. Anything that could reduce it to nothing was used. They urinated over it, they ripped it; they cut it with scissors in front of us. They defecated on it and painted our faces with it. Yes, all this should be said so that the Muslim world understands which degree of hate this sacred Book inspires in them.'Serious Hidden ProblemThe desecration of the Qur’an points to a serious problem that exists among public officials at different echelons of our administration. They reveal the hatred and prejudices that exist against Islam and Muslims despite the rhetorical statements issued by prominent national leaders. This prejudice seems to be further exacerbated by influential elements that fuel this bigotry.
- Extremist Christian Evangelists Within the American Christian community are churches and religious clergy that uphold a theological belief that Islam is antichrist and everything related with it is evil. Statements of prominent leaders such as Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Vines hold testimony to this. All of them have described Islam as an evil religion and all of them have condemned Islam as anti-American. Through their churches, the followers of these leaders are engaged in propagating a message of hatred. Many of our civil servants and military personnel are part of their religious empire. Many in our Administration are the disciples of such leaders. One cannot argue that such people are the fringe of American society. They are now part of the mainstream and their propaganda is effective.
- Zionist Opportunists In order to justify the cause of Israel for its perpetual occupation, Zionist opportunists have also engaged in anti-Islamic propaganda veiled in their political jargons. They tend to view everything Islamic detrimental to the security interests of Israel. In the United States, they occupy positions of importance, as they are part of various think tanks and policy institutes. American law enforcement agencies have often relied on their analysis and information when dealing with Muslims.
Abhorrent and InsensitiveProfessor George Esposito of Georgetown University
[author of What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam& Muslims] says that such abuse
is due partly to Western secularization and a lost sensitivity to degrees of sacredness. While we've become a more religious nation in one sense, we have also become, in our sense of the sacred, less sensitive and aware. What is abhorrent in the current incident where the Qur’an is said to have been flushed down a toilet or the other reports where the Qur’an was trampled, it was done by those who are federal employees and whose job is to serve all people including Muslim citizens of their country. No one should be allowed to use the badge of authority to insult people of other faiths.
The Qur’an in Muslim LifeThe Qur’an is significant in the life of a Muslim from birth to death; the first word recited in the ears of a new born are from the Qur’an and the parting words for the deceased are from the Qur’an.The Qur'an as scripture forms the bedrock of Islamic ideology and teachings. The commands of Allah, the criterion for truth, the standard for justice, the balance between right and wrong ... all of these are taken by Muslims directly from the Qur'an.
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