Casablanca-The road to celebrity has become much easier through criticizing the Islamic religion, without having to show signs of respect towards religious beliefs of its followers.
Casablanca-The road to celebrity has become much easier through criticizing the Islamic religion, without having to show signs of respect towards religious beliefs of its followers.
Throughout decades, a number of unknown people took the decision of criticizing Islam as their way to get into the limelight. Ethics are largely excluded and come as the last thing that would bother them. They become thrilled once they see crowds of people demonstrating angrily around the globe. Somewhere in the United States, while some see American dream achievable through hard work, others find the expected outrage among Muslims more effective.
American dream has been perceived differently through various generations. For the early Europeans who made it to the States in the seventeenth century through Mayflower ship, their dream was to live in a free land, where one’s right to practice his or her religious costumes is fully respected. They were more concerned about their spiritual freedom. A few centuries later, the United States has become a land of economical opportunity, a land for materiel gain and financial prosperity. A poor person, regardless of his or her background, would start his or her life penniless, but through hard work he or she would end up being rich. Longing for the dream, people from all over the world took “Mayflower” to the United States in the hope to have their share in financial prosperity.
Indeed, many people have achieved American dream and president Obama is a living example. His story is well known to the world, a man of African origins who becomes a leader of the strongest nation on the face of the earth. In his victory speech in Iowa held in 2008, he declared his embodiment of the dream through reminding his audience in the US and the whole world that he is a son of “a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas and a story that could only happen in the United States of America.”His election has undoubtedly revived the dream. Many people must have been influenced by his historical victory. He must have created hope in the hearts of the hopeless. Hope that transcends America and reaches the Muslim world.
The Muslims around the globe were thrilled to see him getting a ticket to the white house, and his Cairo speech is probably still very well remembered. While the man represents the bright side of American dream, a pastor of a hardly known small church of Florida preferred to choose the easiest but shameful way to celebrity: burning the holy book of Islam.
Terry Jones decided to burn the Koran, and so he did. He announced to the globe his infamous initiative through which he could grab the attention of billions around the world. In a way, he certainly made himself famous in a blink of an eye. In a time which is characterized by financial, as well as spiritual crisis, if I may call it so, the man was desperately trying to get hold of the American dream and gain for himself and his tiny church some lost prosperity.
The success of his ill-intention was due to a large extent to some easy triggered Muslims who could have made his attempt a story of failure if they only ignored his despicable initiative, with maximum respect to children whose attention-grabbing behavior is innocently shaped. The pastor continued the road he took and supported the disgraceful video against the prophet of Islam. Most probably, his attempts will continue to take place as a reflection of the corrupted side of the American dream.
President Obama, I firmly believe, mirrors the absolute majority of American people who believe in hope and hard work to achieve success in life at both the material and spiritual level. He, therefore, rejects any sort of disdain towards holy beliefs of other nations. A great man like himself did not hesitate to apologize after the burning of the Koran in Afghanistan.
Terry Jones should be seen as the corrupted side of American dream who repeatedly seeks to succeed through unethical means. And that’s how the Muslims are supposed to see similar disgraceful attacks either in America or elsewhere. Instead of expecting every single individual in the world to pay necessary respect towards Islam, it is wisely preferred to ignore such provocative acts because the Islamic religion is a great civilization of tolerance and will always be.
In relation to the image of America in the eyes of Muslim community, the positive impact of the bright side of American dream is expected to remain much stronger than that of the corrupted one. This is thanks to the millions of Americans who serve as noble ambassadors through actively involving in humanitarian campaigns that reach the Muslim world, including rural areas of Morocco. Peace Corps organization is a case in point.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed
