By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Only a month after publishing a controversial article encouraging Catholics to practice yoga, U.S. Catholic magazine is now appearing to support a proposed “Read the Koran” day as a way to dispel mounting tensions over the New York City mosque controversy.
Blogger Meghan Murphy-Gill posted a blog on the U.S. Catholic website encouraging people to get behind a proposal by Dr. James F. McGrath, a professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, that encourages people to spend some time reading the Koran rather than burning it.
“Particularly if you’ve only heard brief quotes from the Qur’an which sound almost as horrific as the things you’d read in Deuteronomy or Joshua in the Bible, then use this occasion to branch out a little and read something that gives a fuller sense of what is in the Qur’an,” Dr. McGrath wrote on his Sept. 8 blog.
The idea apparently comes from Rev. Larry Reimer, a minister at the United Church of Gainesville, Florida, who proposed reading the Koran as an alternative to burning it the way Pastor Terry Jones of the nearby Dove World Outreach Center had planned to do until deciding to call off the burning yesterday.
“Deplorable actions against Muslims, however, can be counteracted with an act of solidarity,” Murphy-Gill commented on the blog. “Reading the Qur’an can deepen our sense of brother and sisterhood with our fellow citizens. And it’s a far more powerful statement than an act of violence.”
While the Vatican and the U.S. Bishops have condemned the burning of the Koran, there has been no call to read the Koran as a way of showing solidarity with Muslims.
It is not surprising that the blog has offended many readers.
“How about reading Canon Law Day since no one knows the catechism anymore,” one reader suggested.
Another demanded to know “where were the protests when the Holy Bible was desecrated? And specifically, where is the protest when Our Lord Himself in the Blessed Sacrament is insulted and blasphemed on Youtube . . .”
The same person reminded Murphy-Gill of when the U.S. military burned unsolicited bibles that were sent to Afghanistan last year. “The US Government burns bibles and no one says anything, while a pastor wants to make a point about the provocations of Islam and the Government steps in to condemn it.”
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