Which Religion stories merited more.

          Pastor Robert Jeffress called Qur’aan an evil book written by a false prophet, the man has frightened thousands of Americans from that pulpit with his un-verifiable claims. Instead of demanding the truth, the congregation has shamelessly rewarded him for peddling hate. He took advantage of their faith in him just as Tilton and several others in Dallas have done in the past. http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/12/which-religion-stories-merited-more.html

           Published in Dallas Morning News today "Which religion stories merited more and better coverage?" http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/12/texas-faith-what-religion-stor.html         

            Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting peace in a society, and it is our responsibility to track down the source of such hate and mitigate it for the benefit of all Americans. No American has to live in anxieties, discomfort or fear of the other.  It is our duty to faithfully guard the safety of every citizen.  

Since our independence we have endured divisive issues like the Civil war, Vietnam War, Abortion, Prayer in School, Anti-Semitism, Civil Rights, Racism, Iraq- Afghanistan wars and the GLBT rights. Indeed we have consistently worked on the conflicts to keep America together.

However, the newly framed hate towards fellow Americans, who follow the religion of Islam, is going to consume our energies for years to come if we do not take the right steps now.  The attack on Qur’aan, their holy book has just begun. 

A great initiative was taken by the Foundation for Pluralism to mitigate the conflicts by demystify the myths about Qur’aan, which were aggressively pushed by the right wingers to pitch one American against the other for their own gains whatever they may be.  

Pastor Robert Jeffress called Qur’aan an evil book written by a false prophet, the man has frightened thousands of Americans from that pulpit with his un-verifiable claims. Instead of demanding the truth, the congregation has shamelessly rewarded him for peddling hate. He took advantage of their faith in him just as Tilton and several others in Dallas have done in the past.

The Pastor was given a monumental historical challenge; he was offered a copy of the Qur’aan and asked to find three things that are evil in it, and if he were to find them, the challenger, a Muslim was going to walk away from his faith to join the Pastors’ congregation, nothing like this has ever happened in the history of a religion. It's a big story. 

With the exception of Steve Blow of Dallas Morning News, the media chose to turn a blind eye, and Fox news deliberately suppressed the truth in their interviews depriving the American public from knowing the truth. 

Pastor Jeffress did not tell the truth nor did he take up the challenge to identify what is evil in Qur’aan.  The question remains, did someone dupe him with the false information, or was he deliberately misleading his congregation?

Do the folks who listened to his hate filled sermon hold grudges against fellow Americans? Does prejudice and hate harm the social cohesion of America?

The media failed to ask him the specifics; his words were carried on the airwaves like the gospel truth without questioning the veracity of his claims and motives. If lawyers were to act like the media, what will happen to the criminals?  Isn’t finding the truth important to the man of the religion and the media?

The purpose of the Qur’aan conference was to understand the issues and find ways to remove such fears and phobias in an open forum and restore the cohesiveness of our society and work towards building a safe and secure America.

Pastor Jeffress declined to attend the conference.  However, he was honored for bringing the issue to the fore from the gossip mills, it has allowed us to search for the truth in an open forum with a real Qur’aan in hand instead of building castles on falsities within the back room conversations.  

This story should have been on the front pages and evening news and it was not.

The organization America together is in the making to focus on bringing Americans together with a series of educational programs to address the issues in an open forum and restore the cohesiveness of our society and work towards building a safe and secure America. 

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There are seven more stories at :
http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/12/texas-faith-what-religion-stor.html
    
Video Interviews and documentaries at: www.Quraanconference.com

Steve Blow's article: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/sblow/stories/DN-blow_19met.ART.West.Edition1.356a575.html

Mike Ghouse runs the Foundation for Pluralism championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other and has dedicated his life to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress.

Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, Peace & Justice Saturday, December 04, 2010at your school, work place, seminars or place of worship. He is a regular commentator on the TV, Radio and Print media offering pluralistic solutions to the issues of the day. He is a speaker, thinker, writer and a peace activist.

Mike's work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Foundation for Pluralism | World Muslim congress | America Together