Anti-Islam Priest Terry Jones: A candidate for the American presidency

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - On October 28, 2011, the Lebanese newspaper “Ad-Diyar” reported that Priest, Terry Jones, who burnt a copy of the Quran last March declared that he will run for the American presidential elections against Obama…

It must be noted that Terry Jones, who wrote an instigating book entitled “Islam is from the Devil”, said in an interview with the American network, NBC, on September 11, 2010, the day he designated for burning a copy of the Holy Quran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 events: “We will definitely not burn the Quran,” but he surprised everyone last March and set a copy of the Holy Quran on fire and posted the video on YouTube.

As for his electoral program, it includes seven points, one of which is expelling twenty million illegitimate residents in the USA, and he called on his supporters through the website of his campaign “Stand up America” to give donations to face the radical Islam.  

Such calls and statements do not participate, in any way, in consecrating World Peace and maintaining bridges of communication and interaction between the different civilizations and peoples; but rather, they make the situation grow more complicated and more agitating…

We quote the words of the innovative Religious Authority, His Eminence, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah (ra) in this regard: “The battle between the arrogant and the downtrodden goes way back in time, and we ought to prepare ourselves for this battle in a civilized manner; i.e. in an Islamic way; thus, beware of all the methods used to derail you from the line of reasoning and balance…” [Extracted from the Book: The challenges of immigration between authenticity and contemporaneity].

Commenting on the acts of offending people’s sacred beliefs, knowing that the act of burying a copy of the Holy Quran executed by Terry Jones is enlisted under this category, His Eminence (ra) said:

“Islam in its intellectual content on the level of doctrine, Shariah, humanitarian concepts and the personality of the Messenger (p.) is being subjected, every now and then, to distorting and offending campaigns whether by the media and the arts (movies) or by research centers and intelligence agencies that try to distort the image of Islam…

It is noteworthy that these campaigns are not restricted to the media or arts, but have been transferred to the sphere of politics aiming at instigating against Muslims to kick them out of their countries.

His Eminence (ra) continued: In this regard, we have certain points we would like to clarify to both the Western and Muslim public opinions:

Firstly: We strongly believe in the freedom of expression, as a humanitarian and civilized principle, but we believe that this freedom should go hand in hand with respect, lest it will lose its humanitarian civilized content, and turn into a kind of aggression against the other, as it is an aggression on his sacred beliefs, regardless of what those beliefs were.

Secondly: As we emphasize that these methods are not related to the freedom of expression, we wonder as to why these people do not dare to criticize what the Jews teachings that despise other nations, with some rabies describing other nations as “insects and snakes”, or, as their books are full of, glorifying violence against other nations. Moreover, why are not the Western laws that prevent any criticism concerning Judaism, under the principle of rejecting anti-Semitism, criticized?

Thirdly: We call for studying the Glorious Quran in a scientific and objective way, so that the fair reader will find that the Quran emphasizes human dignity, since it considers man as Allah's viceroy on earth. And that the Quran is a call for love and mercy, as it calls to resorting to the best of means and words in dialogue and dealing with the other. It also represents a movement towards dialogue, a movement calling for meeting on the basis of the unity of God and the unity of humanity. It also states that Christians are the nearest to Muslims in their spirituality and human humbleness.

Fourthly: Instead of directing the efforts towards offending Islam and the Quran that embodies the values of good and justice, they should be directed against the brutal violence being actually practiced against the poor nations which include killing, destruction, plunder of wealth and confiscating the future, especially that the world is legitimizing usurpation and occupation that are based on the collective eradication of peoples, just as in Palestine where a Jewish state was instituted on the ruins of another nation under the pretence of religious historic rights.

Fifthly: We should be aware that some of the campaigns that we have seen in the Western media might be instituted by a Jewish instigation movement that aims at erecting barriers in the face of any serious international Muslim Christian rapprochement, since those who sought to obtain a Christian acquittance regarding their historic aggression against Jesus Christ (a.s.) having been also working on facilitating the acceptance of the theory of a Muslim-Christian clash. We are motioning this point, because we believe, that establishing a united Islamic Christian spiritual and humanitarian front that is based on values, represents in itself a challenge to the Zionist project that is based on violence, arrogance and despise of other nations.

Sixthly: It has become known that these aggressions against the Muslim's sacred symbols could induce reactions that are in nobody's interests. It could also provide a pretence for the Takifiri movements to justify its violence among the Muslim communities in the West, and deploy the young enthusiastic Muslims by focusing on the retaliation against the aggressions that target the Muslim sacred symbols in the name of freedom of expression that falls short of accepting any criticism of any Israeli, Jewish or Zionist claim.

Seventhly: We call upon all the Muslims in the world, especially the Muslim communities in the West, to haunt all movements that try to distort the image of Islam or offend its sacred symbols under any pretence. We ask their intellectuals, their elites, their religious scholars and all their popular powers to shoulder their responsibilities on the media political, legal, artistic and literary levels, to stop these offending movements and reveal their goals, as well as thwarting the attempts of those who want to create a rift between the Muslims and their Western societies. They should resort to the civilized means that the laws of their countries guarantee and which increase the public opinion sympathy with our just causes.

His Eminence (ra) concluded: In this respect, we emphasize the need for the conscious Muslims to take the initiative to build broad relations with Western thinkers and researchers on all levels to thwart the attempts of those who are misguiding the Western public opinions, about our Islamic issues.

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