You have likely read this past Sunday’s headline that two gunmen claiming to be with ISIS opened fire outside an event billed as a “Mohammed Cartoon Contest” near Dallas. Both were killed but not before they had wounded a security officer.
The event had been organized by Pamela Geller, who suggests that the killers were “your everyday, run-of-the- mill moderates praising mind-numbing savagery.” The gunmen, however, were not members of any local Mosque. Rather, they traveled 1000 miles to wreak havoc and to spread hatred.
Geller claims that she stands for American values and free speech but from my perspective, she spews outrageous hate speech that does nothing but hurt others and create fearful confusion between Muslims and other law-abiding Americans. Her group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Geller's group is behind the creation of the New York subway posters that show an Arab man with a Kafiyah shouting that “killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah. That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?” Her group is also behind the proliferation of a bus ad campaign that states the New Israel fund supports the BDS movement and is an extremist group that is “set out to destroy Israel.”
A few days earlier on the other side of the world, a different sort of free speech protest took place. After 26 years of struggling, the “Women of the Wall” were able to “smuggle” a full-size Torah scroll into the women's section of the Western Wall and to read from the same sacred text as the men. A dozen or so men opposed to this idea attacked and injured Charlie Kalech and Alden Solovy, who had assisted in acquiring the Torah for the woman. Kalech was arrested on Monday and charged with “disturbing the public order.”
Just because you say it doesn’t mean it’s true, or a valuable thing to say. As Stephen Colbert said, “Global warming isn't real because I was cold today! Also great news: world hunger is over because I just ate.”
You can choose to believe Pamela Geller: “This is war on free speech. Are we going to surrender to these monsters?” Or….you can be open to the statement of MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati: “The actions of these two men denigrate the Prophet Muhammad more than any cartoon ever could. The bullets used by the assailants were bullets against our faith.”
“Global warming isn't real because I was cold today!
Also great news: world hunger is over because I just ate.”
You can choose to believe the words of Women of the Wall leader Anat Hoffman: “We have to find a way to outsmart the system. We can’t let the holiest site in Judaism be run by a minority group of extremists.” Or, you can choose to embrace the perspective of Western Wall chief Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz: “The Women of the Wall group has made another tear in the delicate fabric of the Kotel. This is a provocative act whose sole purpose is to 'set the Kotel on fire.”
Who are the patriots? Who are the upstanding citizens? Who stands for free speech and who for spreading hatred? Deuteronomy 30:19 reminds us that we have a choice and that our actions matter. Our voice and our freedom demand integrity and honesty.
“Today I have given you a choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. So choose life, in order that you and your descendants might live.”
Discuss, debate, read, pray, and choose carefully!
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