Islamist Violence

There's a difference between Islam and Islamist extremists, just like there's a difference between Christian and Christian radical fundamentalists, perhaps.  Neither Christianity nor Islam support or endorse the indiscriminate murder and violence we've seen.

Christians and Muslims enjoy a

day at the beach - Djibouti

Interested in how it's supposed to work?

Just a few moments ago in Kenya, a pastor friend reports that "Had a wonderful home fellowship today in an Islamic village; the Muslims were very good to welcome us.  They even said praise the lord with us."

Kenya: Christians and Muslims Vow to Stay United

Religious leaders from the Christian and Muslim faiths
have vowed to remain vigilant on terrorists following twin
attacks on churches in Garissa.  The religious leaders said
those who attacked the churches were doing so as to create
animosity and hatred between the Muslim and Christians
who have been living harmoniously for decades.

Why do most Muslims and Christians live graciously side by side in Kenya?  And in Djibouti, it turns out.  And Egypt!

Why do we see such strange wickedness on both sides but among just the few, even here in the U.S.?

             "Do unto others...?"

Rev. Terry Jones, the leader of a small

Florida church which supports anti-Islam

philosophy says he is determined to go

through with his plan to burn copies of the

Qu'ran on September 11 in an international

'Burn-a-Koran Day', despite pressure from

the White House, religious leaders and

other people across the world to call it

off. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

has called the planned event 'distrustful

and disgraceful' means of marking the

9/11 tragedy. Muslim cleric Mohammad

Mukhtar in Afghanistan said that, if the

burning is carried on, Americans 'will be

killed wherever they are seen', while others

expressed similar fears that it could trigger

violence across the world.

    Law enforcement has identified
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula as the
man behind “Innocence of Muslims,”
the anti-Islam movie that is widely
blamed for riots around the world,
the AP reports.
    Nakoula had previously claimed he
had a role in the film’s creation, but
insisted he was not the director. Earlier
reports centered around a certain Sam
Bacile, but many doubts have been cast
on Bacile’s identity. Cell phones tied to
Bacile and Nakoula traced to the same
address.
    Nakoula ran afoul of the law in 2010, when
he pleaded no contest to federal bank fraud
charges after being indicted in a somewhat
intricate scheme involving fake bank
accounts created using stolen Social
Security numbers.  He was given a 21 month
prison sentence and had to pay $790,000.
    Actors in “Innocence of Muslims” say they 
were duped by the man claiming to be Bacile,
and that the film as they knew it was not
about Islam. One actress claims all the
offensive references were dubbed over the
lines the cast actually read. The movie was
originally titled “Desert Warriors.”

A crackpot Florida 'pastor' publicly burned copies of the Koran.  Why?  It's not like his congregation was going to read them.  It inflamed sentiment around the world.  He plans to do it again.

A California troublemaker with a criminal background made a movie which he later dubbed with anti-Islamic slander without the actors in the movie knowing about it.  He put words in their mouths, sacrilege to Muslims, and inflamed sentiment around the world.  

It's worth remembering, there's a difference between Islam and Christianity on one side, and Islamist extremism and Christian radical fundamentalism on the other.  

In the days following the brutal attack on
All Saints Church in Alexandria, solidarity
between Muslims and Copts has seen an
unprecedented peak. Millions of Egyptians
changed their Facebook profile pictures to
the image of a cross within a crescent, the
symbol of an "Egypt for All". Around the
city, banners went up calling for unity, and
 depicting mosques and churches, crosses
and crescents, together as one.

It's a heart difference, as our Kenyan pastor has pointed out.  Hate speech, a willingness to harm another, and a murderous heart accompany the latter.  It's perhaps the same as when Hitler and the Nazis took over the church in Germany and persuaded them that they were somehow superior to the rest of the world and justified in exterminating them.  Much the same, indeed.  

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find....