Will the Imams Remain Silent?

Last summer, when hurricanes devastated Florida, I heard a disconcerting sermon at a local mosque. The imam said that such disasters should be taken as a "warning." I've heard other imams say that after America is beset with a tornado, or a hurricane, or an earthquake, that it is "God's justice for America's wrong done unto Muslims."

So far I haven't heard of any imams preaching a similar message about the victims of the tsunami. And I suspect I won't-primarily because many, if not most, of the victims are Muslims. I feel confident of this because I've noticed the tendency of imams--and I suspect preachers of all faiths--to cite the wrath of God when they're talking about other people's flaws. For example, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Jerry Falwell suggested that God allowed the attacks as a warning to the nation because of its "moral decay" and said Americans should have an attitude of repentance before God. He specifically listed the ACLU, abortionists, feminists, gays, and the People For the American way as sharing in the blame.

This attitude deeply angers me. To say that terrorist attacks are a "warning," or that a hurricane in Florida is "revenge" for the U.S. invasion of Iraq or "punishment" for the sinners of Florida is simply callous.

I want to ask the imams: Is it the "wrath of God" only when non-Muslims are victimized? I don't get satisfactory answers to questions like this during a typical sermon. And I disagree with them (and clergy of other faith of this ilk) because their approach strips us of compassion for the suffering of other human beings-which is completely contrary to the principles of Islam.

Perhaps these imams say such things because of verses found in the Qur'an: "Yet if the people of those communities had but attained to faith and been conscious of Us, We would indeed have opened up for them blessings out of heavens and earth: but they gave the lie to the truth, and so We took them to task through what they [themselves] were doing" (7:96).

But these verses come at the end of a long passage about various ancient Prophets, including Noah, Lot, and Jethro, and their experiences with their people-including the disasters that befell them. They are not "feel good" verses. And they really don't have anything to do with natural disasters. The passage speaks about the end result of a community living in opposition to eternal moral truths.

No doubt, both the Bible and the Qur'an are full of stories documenting how the rebelliousness of a people caused their destruction. We should heed the lessons of those stories, but we should never let ourselves become heartless. Just because God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their iniquities does not mean we should have no compassion for the victims of a Florida hurricane-or of an Asian tsunami.

We are all sinners. If we have no heart for others' suffering, then we should not expect others to have heart if God sends a natural disaster our way. A natural disaster is always a tragedy, and we must always feel pain for the suffering of others.

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