Why is it OK to burn Quran?

Why it is ok to burn Quran?

A pastor of a small church is able to capture the attention of not only national media but also imagination of our nation. His declaration to burn Quran caused protests internationally as far as Pakistan and Indonesia. The call to burn Quran by Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, raises more questions than it answers. “How can someone be praying to God about burning someone’ else scriptures?” Initially it is hard to understand why will a religious organization promote burning of Quran and as you listen to Terry Jones, you will see that all his reasons are weak arguments until you really hear him say the real reason.

“Jesus is the only way to God and those who do not believe in this ‘Truth’ are wrong.” I believe this ‘truth’ that was driving this small church to burn Quran as it is not truth. Now, if Quran doe not tell truth, it is no longer a scripture and so it is okay to burn it.

Unfortunately, ‘Jesus is the only way to God’ is commonly accepted fact among Christians than one would like to believe, although not all of them will support burning Quran or Geeta for that simple reason. Fundamentally if you believe that you are the only religion that knows truth and all others are going to burn in hell, it becomes a big responsibility on Christians to save people of other religions from burning in hell. It could also be driven by a deep desire to save non Christians than a real hatred for the other religious people.

“How can a religion develop itself on the tenet that its prophet is the only savior and all people of other faiths are going to burn in hell,” is the question we need to ask and only when a true answer is found, savior’ is not the problem with just Christianity as people from other major religions also believe in their sole right to the truth (although, there are exceptions as well). Hindus are taught from the beginning that all faiths lead to same God and that the whole world is a family. It is much easier for Hindus to accept Jesus as son God than for Christians to accept that Hindus can go to God with out Jesus.

We need to need to dig deeper to understand why Christians believe that only people who believe in Jesus will go to heaven. It comes from John 14:6. "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Terry Jones and many Christians believe that once they accept Jesus, they have gate pass to heaven as the price for their sin is paid by Jesus; but people of other faiths can not go to heaven, as it will contradict what Jesus declared in John 14:6. Now if Bible is ‘Word’ of God, it must be ‘true’ and hence other scriptures which do not accept Jesus as “The Only Way” are false scriptures and hence can be burnt. Events of 9/11 give the evidence that Quran is false scripture, but keep in mind, it is not because some people hijacked Islam, but because it supports their understanding of Bible. Unfortunately, people like Terry Jones and many Christians ignore the other quotations from Jesus in Matthew 7:21,
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Jesus later clarifies that the will of Father is to love God and love your neighbor.
A religion based on “Love thy Neighbor” is now hijacked by people like Terry Jones and international Quran burning day is declared. The problem is not with Terry Jones, but with the religion that never tried to understand what did Jesus mean when he declared, “I am the way.” The deep introspection leads you to the meaning of ‘I’ as eternal ‘Self’ because Jesus claimed to be one with Father. He could not be talking about Jesus of two thousands year back limited by time and space dimension, when he claimed, “Before Abraham was, I am”(John 8:58). When Christianity will start to understand Jesus beyond time and space, they will realize that people of all faiths can get to God through Jesus beyond time and space with out accepting Jesus as their savior. Once you are not the only one saved with responsibility to save people of all false religions, need to burn Quran and scriptures of other false religions for that matter will go away.




Sam S. Nath, author
The Second coming of Da Vinci - Real Lost Symbols of Bible.
www.SecondComingofDaVinci.com