(AP) A sign saying “Jesus Loves Osama” outside some churches in Australia drew criticism from the prime minister and other religious leaders on Thursday, though they conceded it was probably true according to Christian beliefs.
One sign outside the Central Baptist Church in downtown Sydney also had a smaller footnote saying “Jesus said: `Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”’ Several other churches in the city had similar signs urging prayers for Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda terrorist leader, according to local media.
A photograph of the sign was published in The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday, prompting debate about whether it was a suitable message.
Prime Minister John Howard said something else would have been better.
“I understand the Christian motivation of the Baptist church,” Howard told reporters. “But I hope they will understand that a lot of Australians, including many Australian Christians, will think that the prayer priority of the church on this occasion could have been elsewhere.”
Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen said churches that posted the sign were obviously trying to illustrate Christian teaching that God loves everybody, no matter how evil their sins, but that he found the sign “a bit misleading” and potentially offensive. Hallelujah…
Yes, his followers are responsible for killing thousands. And yes, he is a wolf wrapped in sheep's clothing that preaches a messagae that is pretty much the opposite of what Jesus preached. But he loves him anyway. That pretty much sums up the beauty of Jesus and the evil of Osama.
^ You wouldn't have said that if this sign was outside a mosque. The imam and all the muslims in the locality would have been behind bars and all the newspapers shouting terrorists.
^ You are probably right. And that's because the Biblical Jesus is very different from the Quranic Jesus. His message may be in sync with the Muslim's interpretation of Jesus (I don't know), but I do know that is very much against the original Biblical teachings Jesus.
I don’t doubt the beauty of Jesus and the act of Osama can be compared to the act of Jesus upturning the vendors’ tables in the Temple of Solomon…
However, if you consider Osama’s act as evil, what would you call an act in which hundreds of thousands lost their lives, their living conditions, their health, their sustenance, their future for thousands of years, destroying an entire nation e.t.c.?
What do you call the kind of person that not only tries to get back at you in revenge, but tries to get back at you through many innocents who are around you whether young, old, child, woman and invalid?
^ Ok, but you'd have to find me a real whacko Christian (and I agree, they are out there. I just have no desire to be around them) that would say those things were done according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Why get all worked up over signs when sunni terrorists are busy killing everyone else in Iraq and elsewhere. Lets refocus on the real issues instead of these imaginary ones to get mullahs all excited about.
Cartoons, marathons, speeches, all trouble mullahs, but killings of Muslims don't, unless the killers happen to be kafirs.
^
Excuse me...who was it that was screaming their voice hoarse claiming this was going to happen back in 2003? This was an obvious consequence of the invasion. The only part the critics have got wrong so car was the involvement of Turkey with the Kurds.
I mean, yeah the Sunni and Shia death squads aren't playing by the script...who the hell do we blame for that? What did you expect them to do? Sit down, hold hands and teach the world to sing in harmony? Screw that...
So no...the gangs of Baghdad don't get any outrage, because we knew they were there all along. We TOLD you so...but noooooo....bush and his neocon buddies wanted to try their little experiment....
But by all means, let's pretend like the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with this...
More directly, this is an obvious consequence of the sunnis not being in power anymore, which came as a result of the invasion and subsequent results of elections.
Here we are arguing about a guy who is hiding in some cave somewhere and apparently has been forgotten because our new enemy is the insurgents in Iraq. Gotta love stupidity.
Christianity is just as prone to misintrepretation and misuse as Islaam.
Look at the crusades/inquisitions, things are no different today when devote Christians like your president and our primeminister have called this war a "crusade" (which shows they condoned the crusades), i.e. "Christian holy war" and have often admitted to praying and looking to the Bible for inspiration regarding the war. They follow in the footsteps of the crusaders killing infidels (Muslims) for land and oil under false pretenses (e.g. WMD) the way their predecessor crusaders killed not only Muslims but also Jews/Orthodox-Christians under our protection out of the same material greed (land, access to the silk route etc.)...
Jihaad is a noble thing if practiced according to the strict guidelines set out by Islaam which are no harm to non-combatant-civilisans, clergy, temples, livestock and plantation on the other hand Christian-Crusades don't seem to have any rules of combat and it seems that Christians believe that killing an infidel is virtuous and sinless regardless of whether it's a baby or an old granny because infidels don't matter as they're unsaved and killing their children is "a price worth paying" (wouldn't be saying that if their own kids were the ones what got killed now would they?). You need not look any further than the heads (Popes) of the Christian Church and their blood-thirsty history, you'd think they'd have a better understanding of the Christian message and scripture (Old and New Testaments) than anyone else...
I am proud that Jihad is a part of my faith because my faith is balanced and practical and teaches bravery/chivalry where needed and compassion and benevolence where needed not cowardice...
Terrorism is not Jihad because for a war to be Jihad (sacred struggle) it has to be inline with the laws set out by Islam which I mentioned above.. Although I can understand why a Chechen, Palestinian or Kashmiri who grew up amongst hostility, hatred and persecution would turn a blind eye to certain Islamic rules of war and resort to acts of terrorism because they have no other option and are helpless, I can also see why Muslims from other countries would resort to terrorism for the sake of their persecuted brethren because we're like one body and if one part is in pain the other can't rest (you have to have tasted the sweetness of faith to understand what I'm talking about) but that doesn't mean it's justified under Islam, Islam is not the root cause of terrorism rather it's anger/helplesness/frustration due to persecution at the hands of the goverments/armies of USA, Israel, India (and sadly my homeland Britian) which results in terrorism.
Killing innocents is not Jihaad, it would have been Jihaad had I been born in this country during the WWII and I'd fought the Nazis.
Terrorism is not justified because two wrongs don't make a right but that's the reason for you, no sane Muslim including myself would condone terrorism because it's against our religion but there's two sides to a coin and westerners/christians need to start being a bit open minded and fair and condemn their terrorists the way we condemn ours.