A reaction to that pastor in Florida

“Every time I look at you
I don't understand
Why you let the things you did
Get so out of hand
You'd have managed better
If you'd had it planned
Now why'd you choose such a backward time
And such a strange land?
If you'd come today
You could have reached the whole nation
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication”
-Judas Escariot to Jesus Christ, in the song “Superstar” from the Broadway musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”

This Broadway song is from a musical that was an artistic interpretation of the last few days of Jesus Christ. For some, the play was considered sacrilegious and even anti-Semitic. If it were released today, I am sure boycotting the musical would have been more popular because of the internet and we would unfortunately may even be deprived of the Lion King, the Phantom of the Opera, Cats, and other succeeding works of Tim Rice or Andrew Lloyd Webber.

We live in a time where you have people on television claiming they have a direct line to God. We live in a time when someone can go online and cause furor and controversy so much easier than it were decades earlier. We live in the age of mass communication.

A Florida pastor wanted to pay homage to the thousands who died tragically at the World Trade Center nine years ago by burning the Holy Quran which was thankfully called off . I’m of the belief that we should be moderate in our practice of our respective faiths partly because it only takes so much to push someone over the edge and inadvertently cause outrage. We have to be more responsible in this age of globalization, man.

If that Florida pastor pushed through with it, who knows how some people in the global Muslim community would have reacted (which I am almost sure would be generalized by some). There are just some things you shouldn’t mess around with – and other people’s faith is one of them. I wouldn’t even bat an eye if they burned Osama Bin Laden’s picture or hold a protest rally against the building of the masjid in Ground Zero, but what they tried to do is just too much. You cannot go out and say that another faith professes radicalism. Isn't the burning of the Holy Quran radical? Isn’t saying that God spoke to you radical or extreme?

Akbar Amhed, in his contribution to the Asian Wall Street Journal last September 1 said there are three types of Muslims, broadly stratified as the mystic, the modernist, and the literalist. I want to believe that I am a cross between a modernist and a literalist, as one who strives to coexist with people of other faiths. There are “literalists” out there who would disagree with “modernists” completely but I just cannot subscribe to violence to which some do and I believe that there is no compulsion in religion. We should be careful on how we human beings try to interpret religious scripture, and we should be careful on how far we stretch our devotion to our faith, regardless of denomination. We should respect other people's truths. And for any literalists out there, if someone does go far on the offensive, you don't have to go all Hetfield and fight fire with fire.

But do go Lennon on me on this one and imagine: Imagine if the revelation of the word of God happened today, in the age of the internet - in a time when anyone can be “Messiah” or "Pariah” almost instantly . How different the world may have been, and thank God things are the way they are. And thank God cooler heads prevailed.

To commemorate the 9/11 tragedy, I won’t burn anything. Even ESPN thinks some other things should instead be burned. In fact, I’ll try to read more about the tragedy. In this time of the internet, when Time even named me Person of the Year once, I am going to download a torrent for “Fahrenheit 9/11” and also try to look for videos about the tragedy on Youtube.

Because I want to seek the truth. Not burn it.


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Who is Anthony Taberna?

After we completed our prayers for Eid ul Fitre at the Indonesian Embassy along Salcedo Street in Makati this morning, my mom read out an SMS from her sister saying that the Eid was discussed on Umagang Kay Ganda (the morning news show on ABS CBN). She stated that its anchor had made an announcement that prostitutes from Senegal are welcoming the end of Ramadan and that prostitution is legal in Islam. He accompanied his remarks with a laugh, even as his co-anchor Ms. Pinky Webb tried to say that it was not consistent in Islam.

The sound of his name alone ruins my day.

Why did ABS CBN even think of putting this person on a morning news show and call the show “A Good Morning”? This person has made it a habit of grilling guests on their show, or making controversial what is already controversial. When you watch him, he acts as if he is the most intelligent person around when in fact he could be the most ignorant. I never liked watching him, but now I have begun to hate him.

It is journalists like him that foster hate in this world. And for the record, prostitution is not legal in Islam.

It is journalists like him who enjoy the limelight of controversy and can create a hostage situation into a national embarrassment.

I am no perfect Muslim, but I am among the majority of the more than 1 billion Muslims who live in peace, love, and unity with other faiths. I am among those who wept for the people who died in 9/11 and it is sad that tomorrow a church in the USA will burn copies of the Holy Quran to commemorate the tragedy.

Today's Final Jeopardy answer: A Filipino TV journalist who is ignorant and makes the wrong perception of Islam even worse. (See my title)

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