AMMAN – A group of young Muslims on Monday offered flowers to Christian clergymen in Amman as a gesture of “peace and coexistence” against the backdrop of a Florida pastor’s recent threat to burn copies of the Koran.
“Shall we burn a copy of the Bible as a response to that? No, this is not what should be done,” Zeid Oweidi told reporters at the Greek Orthodox Church in Abdali yesterday.
Following Al Asr (afternoon) prayers at the King Abdullah I Mosque, Oweidi and a group of 10 people walked to the nearby church, where they greeted the clergymen and other congregation members with bouquets of flowers.
The gesture sought to reaffirm the state of interfaith coexistence in Jordan, he said, adding that Pastor Terry Jones’ plans to burn 20 copies of Islam’s holy book will not affect the “strong” relations between followers of the two religions in the Kingdom, where Christians constitute around 5 per cent of the population.
Oweidi said some Muslim clerics opposed his initiative, but he insisted on going through with it, because “we believe in the positive effect and the peaceful message behind what we are doing”.
Several churches in the country have issued statements over the past week condemning plans by Jones, head of the Florida-based Dove World Outreach Centre, to burn copies of the Koran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US.
How cool it that?
BTW, our Jordanian church is a part of the group who took out an ad in the paper last week to condemn the acts of the Florida pastor. I have approached our denomination to take a stand against dishonor killings, and support the work of La Sharraf Bil Jareemah. Our denomination has had only one honor killing in it’s 80 years in Jordan, but they feel even one is one too many.
When negative minority voices are loud, positive voices must roar.
That’s just fantastic.
And I would never have heard about it if you hadn’t told me.
http://www.blackwatertown.wordpress.com
BWT, you and 99% of my friends in America, which is why I posted it.
(now I need to go read your blog, I have been a poor visitor!)
I dig that. I think that is cool that people reach out and look past some people doing obnoxious things. I hope one day the it will work the other way as well, because I’m sick of hearing about every muslim is a terrorist.
That is VERY cool.
Wintersamar, you reminded me of a post I want to write: “Why Tolerance is Not Enough”. To encourage you, I have not personally ever heard a human voice say “every Muslim is a terrorist” (or any like absolute statements), even in the deepest darkest corners of Zion Land.
Marvin, YEA! I loved that it was teens, too, way to teach positive outreach.
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Repost at deerate.com
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… what a lovely thing to hear. Very encouraging – thanks for posting this.
Saw the article last night and found it encouraging. Thanks for spreading it beyond our borders…
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I have nicked your post. It’s here now too – http://blackwatertown.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/2012/
Nice!
i’m suprised the Media doesn’t have news on Islam today. I thought the Media’s mission, was to distort and depict false image of Islam and Muslims to narrow minded people who consume what ever the Media feeds them without verification or authentication.
Nice Blog, and yes we’ll live in harmony till we die
Hamede and BWT, I am honored by the link! A story worth repeating
Sharon, MommaBean, Jaraad, I agree!
Jazi, forgive me for smiling as I know this is a touchy subject. All you have to do is exchange the word “Muslim” for “Christian” and it could be some of my friends in the US writing.
The mainstream media in America is fairly agnostic and mistrustful of people of faith, period.