Hope of Abraham and Sarah
Hope of Abraham and Sarah, friend of Hagar, God of Ruth,
you desire that every people worship you in spirit, truth.
Meet us in our sacred places, mosque and synagogue and church.
Show us paths of understanding; bless us in our common search.
you desire that every people worship you in spirit, truth.
Meet us in our sacred places, mosque and synagogue and church.
Show us paths of understanding; bless us in our common search.
Root us in our own tradition, faith our forebears handed down.
Grow us in your grace and knowledge, plant our feet on solid ground.
Cultivate the seeds of sharing in this world of many creeds.
Keep us open, wise in learning, bearing fruit in loving deeds.
Hope of Abraham and Sarah, sovereign God whom we adore,
form in us your new creation, free of violence, hate and war.
So may Torah, cross and crescent, each a sign of life made new
point us toward your love and justice, earth at peace and one in you.
Amen.
worthy of a second Amen!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about this a bit lately. Christians and Jews seem to get along just fine for the most part these days. But we collectively need to figure out if Islam is fundamentally incongruent with our ways or not. We like to preach tolerance in the west, but what about tolerance of intolerance? Many muslims will tell us that islam is a peaceful religion, that there are but a minority of militant fundamentalists. (Perhaps not unlike our own militant Christian fundamentalists?)
ReplyDeleteBut when it comes to certain things, even peaceful, tolerant muslims are inflexible. For example, Egypt's president, while condemning the violence of recent protests/attacks on the American embassy, warned that America ought to impose tougher penalties on people who create and promote offensive media. Basically he wants the US (and us) to fundamentally change their laws on free speech, to avoid the ire of muslims who will turn to physical violence from a cartoon or film. Unbridled satire is a defining feature of the west, it makes one wonder just how many irresolvable differences there are, or rather how much will we have to compromise to avoid violence?
Yes, at a certain point I think we need to become intolerant about intolerance, and I also think that there is a time to impose limits on free speech. We consider ourselves to have free speech here in Canada, but "hate speech" in Canada is punishable by law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_Canada).
DeleteSatire is NOT unbridled in this country.
I don't know anything about these comments by Egypt's President. If you say "he warned" America... it sounds like a threat and like he's defending terrorists. Perhaps he was just showing his solidarity with the morals of his people. I'm in favour of the restriction of offensive media too. Plato even speaks in favour of censorship in The Republic, does he not?
There is a wide spectrum of belief within Islam, just as there is within Judaism and Christianity. Maybe check out Irshad Manji, she's an author and an advocate for reform and progressive Islam, also she's Canadian.
True, there is restriction on free speech, and some things, holocaust denial for example, are unutterable. So you are right to point this out. I didn't mean to imply that our free speech laws are free, but rather that Egypt's president and I'm sure many Muslim people expect America to change its free speech laws because of people who are intolerant and extremely sensitive.
DeleteYou are speaking very tentatively here. It's great that there are some Muslims who are tolerant. Does this mean that Islam is not a fundamentally intolerant religion? Not necessarily.
Satire is often offensive, but sometimes offensive is not a bad thing. Satire can express truths in very poignant ways. For example the Dutch cartoon from a few years back which featured Mohammed with a bomb in his turban could be thought of as a humorous way to point out the absurdity of such violence inspired by a religious figure. The result: outrage and more deaths by bombing.
I agree that free speech ought not to be entirely unbridled. But I can't help but thinking that, after seeing the film, the magnitude of the reaction to it is ridiculous. Of course there's much more to it than that, but some groups are placing direct blame on the film - the group claiming the suicide bomb in Afghanistan for example.