Threats to burn the Quran by Pastor Terry Jones and relations between Muslims and the West especially in the US was the focus of pundits this week. In the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Amal Al-Hazzani wrote that the threat to burn the Quran "was a crime in its own, because it provoked the emotions of more than a billion people, just as the project to build a mosque at the site of the Twin Towers in New York provoked the feelings of moderate Americans, and even ignited extremism in the hearts of those normally silent." Al-Hazzani explained that those who oppose the building of the mosque want the place to be empty of conflict and controversy, "so that families of the victims of 9/11 can find space to put a bouquet of flowers every year, without mixed feelings of grief and malice, and so attention is not drawn away from the fact that it is a place of memory." If built near Ground Zero, the proposed Islamic centre would ultimately focus on defending Islam "but this would be a weak defence, because advocates would be presenting their case over the bodies of victims," Al-Hazzani warned. Al-Hazzani laments that most of those who excel in abusing Islamic values are Muslims themselves. "Islamic history is full of instances of murder and intimidation that have taken place in mosques. Innocent people have been killed, with the perpetrators neither respecting the sacredness of the place nor the sanctity of worship," Al-Hazzani wrote. She cites many examples from contemporary history as dozens of mosques in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Somalia and Yemen have been blown up at the hands of Muslim extremists. "These mosques had worshippers and copies of the Quran but (Muslim) condemnation is not in proportion to the obscenity of these acts. Meanwhile, we find that the threat to burn the Quran by Christian extremists results in outrage amongst Muslims, although there is no difference in the crime. The aim is the same -- an attempt to abuse high religious values," Al-Hazzani concluded. In "Why did we give Jones a platform?" Mashari Al-Zaydi, also in Asharq Al-Awsat, wrote that the media were to be blamed for overpublicising Pastor Terry Jones's call for burning copies of the Quran. "Had it not been for the media, we would have known nothing about this pastor, who expected to 'end radical Islam' merely by burning a few copies of the Quran, and in doing so, he would take his revenge on a religion to which one-fifth of the global population belongs," Al-Zaydi wrote. "What is most worrying about this affair is the ease in which the virus of extremism and fundamentalism has spread through the ongoing 'sneezing' of media outlets," Al-Zaydi added Al-Zaydi cited a "rational" woman living in the same neighborhood of Terry Jones as saying that "the media is adding fuel to the fire; he [the pastor] is mad". Al-Zaydi described the world we are living in as "fragile, susceptible to minor irritations, and capable of breaking at the first test. "How could an unknown pastor provoke the entire world with an ignorant act that will not change anything, and will not harm Islam or Muslims at all? Are we all so emotionally unstable and so volatile? This is what is most important in the whole affair, and this is where we should look for answers. Who is to blame for our rapid tendency to combust? Is it the media, or our inability to find a common language, amongst the different cultures of the world? Where lies the fault?" Al-Zaydi wondered. In the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi Abdel-Bari Atwan wrote that protesting against a terrorist operation is one thing and offending the followers of a divine religion is something else. "The first is legitimate and justifiable and the second is a criminal act that serves extremism and extremists and might lead to bloody wars and acts of revenge which could be more dangerous than the 9/ 11 events themselves and with their victims numbering hundreds or thousands," Atwan wrote. Referring to discrimination against Muslims, Atwan wrote that only European Muslim citizens, of all the other religions, are required to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Even after obtaining a visa, Atwan added, in most cases they are subjected to humiliating treatment at American airports such as body searches and being subjected to lengthy and provocative inquests regardless of their posts or origin. Atwan called for an end to "this provocative treatment" and "continuing incitement" by clear legislating laws which protect Muslims and their faith, the same way there are laws protecting Jews from any discrimination, including the criminalisation of anti-Semitism or the expression of doubt about or denial of the Holocaust. Atwan also argued that banning the burning of copies of the Quran, distortion of the image of Islam and Muslims, and incitement of hatred against them should be a consensual issue among followers of all religions, and in particular Christianity, "because this is a racist act of terrorism that is not in keeping with the tolerant teachings of divine religions and not because of concerns for NATO forces and in particular American troops in Afghanistan." "The Western world is losing its values and morals and probably its security, stability, and safety of its citizens by failing to take decisive and deterrent measures against these spiteful extremist racists," Atwan concluded.
