PERSPECTIVES

Yesterday I stood in line at what has become my favorite lunch hangout waiting to be served by one of the guys behind the counter, all of whom know me by now since I’m there practically every day.

An elderly lady was also waiting for service like I was, in fact she had been there before me.

Though with just two people there was no formal line, she wasn’t therefore queued directly in front of me.

The guys behind the counter now saw me waiting, their usual customer, and eagerly offered to ask what I wanted today.

I politely told them to first check with the woman who had been waiting before me, they did, and she placed her order.

Then she turned to me and said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Here’s what I’m getting at.

Often people will volunteer as a group or neighborhood and participate in community service activities: clean up the street, rake neighbors’ leaves, snow shoveling driveways, or visit a hospital or soup kitchen.

All of these are wonderful activities and should be encouraged, but sometimes our intentions are less than wonderful.

A lot of times, for the sake of portraying an image, we may engage in community services because it’s “good PR.”

That it may be, but let’s not overlook that what’s better than PR is to do something out of plain, human decency - like helping a blind person cross the street.

In other words, while a neighborhood clean-up will likely score brownie points with the surrounding community we ought to do it simply because it’s the right thing to do.

Do it for Allah, He will handle the PR.

(They) feed with food, out of love for Him, the needy, the orphan and the prisoner.

We feed you seeking Allah alone. We ask of you neither compensation nor thanks. 76:08

With some interest I viewed a video of a somewhat celebrated atheist discussing his visit to a Muslim school in the UK.

During his trip, he claims to have noticed students quoting verses from the Qur’an which, he says, were scientifically inaccurate.

The verses which spoke of two bodies of water that don’t mix were clearly misunderstood, and thus misinterpreted.

Therefore they were obviously ‘scientifically incorrect’ to the atheist since he didn’t understand them properly in the first place.

Be that as the case may be, it is important to understand that the Muslim does not use science to qualify the Qur’an.

Rather it is the Qur’an that is held as the gold standard and is used to qualify the world around him: astronomy, biology, chemistry, even finance and economics.

Using science to qualify scripture is by origin a European-American practice where, as the New World was discovered, great effort was made to separate religion from state.

Emigrants from the Old World had seen it all: women being burnt alive accused of witchcraft and blasphemy, the Church imposing their Earth-centric view of the universe on everyone, and the persecution of people like Galileo for daring to prove a different solar system.

It was no secret that science and Christianity were at odds.

But that was Europe.

In the Muslim world there was no conflict between science and religion.

Here religion was Islam not Christianity, and neither the books of Islam nor the teachings of its scholars contradicted invention and technology.

As more and more discoveries in science came to light, Qur’anic evidence seemed to support and strengthen them.

The Muslim experience with science was one of perfect harmony, and diametrically opposed to that of Christendom’s.

This congruence, which unlike Europe could find no divide between science and Religion, is one reason why there are substantially fewer atheists among educated intellectuals in the Muslim world than there are in Christian nations.

The impending Qur’an burning scheduled for September 11th by the fanatical Dove World Outreach Church in Gainesville, FL is likely to do more harm to Christians, specifically Americans, than Muslims.

The extremist pastor orchestrating the hateful act, considered a sacrilege by both Muslims and moderate Christians, is conducting the demonic deed to demonstrate his disdain for Islam.

Bible burnings in reciprocation are unlikely, as Muslims acknowledge the Divine origin of Christian scripture.

It is however probable that the Qur’an burning will spawn hate crimes toward churches and Christians in the non-Christian world, particularly American citizens residing abroad.

This concern is also echoed by military officials.

Americans are also likely to be seen as a hypocritical community that preaches equality of religion only when it suits their interests.

The planned desecration has been outlawed by the state of Florida though no real action has been taken to enforce the prohibition.

Prudent action would be for state authorities to prevent this outrage from wrecking American-Islamic relations and jeopardizing the security of Americans and Christians worldwide.