Sarah Palin is sniping away at President Obama with tweeted questions about his support for the right of the Islamic community to build a mosque near the ground-zero site. She's been working this angle for some time now, since she tweeted that a mosque at the site would "stab hearts."
Never mind that Muslims also died in the twin towers, and that Islam is--just like Christianity--a wide, diverse religion with many strands of thought and practice, including core teachings that condemn violence and praise peace. Never mind the profound love-centered spirituality of Rumi and other Islamic mystics, which has taught Christians much about prayer and union with God. Never mind that Islam preserved Aristotle and other classic Greek thinkers for the West, and has co-existed peacefully with Christianity for centuries in many areas of the world--despite the incredible damage that the Christian crusades inflicted on Islamic peoples.
Both Christianity and Islam have checkered pasts, particularly when it comes to the use of violence. Neither can claim some high-falutin' moral supremacy when it comes to history and the use of violence and coercion as tools to control despised Others and to spread their religions.
My tweeted questions for Sarah:
Ms. Palin, are you a Christian supremacist who wants to deepen the animosity between world religions and cultures? Or do you refudiate the supremacist position?
What do you believe about peace, Ms. Palin? What do you imagine Jesus meant when he said, "Blessed are the peacemakers"?
And why do you oppose prayer? Why do you not want communities of faith to pray at the ground-zero site? Or do you imagine that God hears only the prayers of Christians?
