Saturday, January 19, 2008

No book can be sacred if....on Muslim responsibility

Herald Leader, Op Ed, letters.
Dear Editor (second draft, post dating previous email)

Suggested Head: Muslim Responsibility, or No book can be sacred if.....

Look! My brother is going out – based on his interpretation of the Book we both hold sacred and killing innocent people. Fact, repeated fact, with enormous harm to countless children and innocent civilians, even inside our own mosques! Suicide bombers around every corner. Yet, surfeited with dollars from oil reserves, I sit in my palace counting my billions from the Western world, feasting, but looking the other way.

Do I have an obligation to stop my brother? Not only for the harm he is doing, but because he is my brother, because he interprets our sacred Book wrongly, and because of the wrong view the rest of the world will have about us, our Book and our mutual faith?

We pay Saudis billions for their oil What is the responsibility of the wealthy Saudi rulers toward their extremist brothers? These radical extremists are brothers in their faith and often of their own tribes and clans.

Where is Muslim leadership today in correcting the harmful abuses based on interpretations of their sacred Book? Why should not the very rich Saudi Muslims be leading the war on Muslim terrorism? Why should they not be paying for the war created by the renegades within their own faith community? Why have not the leaders of the Western world stood up n this matter? Unless they fear the loss of precious oil? Excuse the French, do they have us by the balls? .

Instead of building rich cities and stuffing their pockets with our dollars, while we Westerners try to counter and stop their extremist brothers, Saudi Muslims should both lead and financing the war on terrorism. It is created and stoked by their own clan members based on the Book they all hold holy.

If their book is from Allah, then Saudi Muslims, and all the moderate Muslims, should be called upon, charged with confronting and controlling these extremists who are part of their own families! If for no other reason, they should stand up and act for the sake of their own Book.

Let me put it this way: No book can be sacred, if while holding it sacred, I allow my brother to kill innocent people because of his personal reading of it and do nothing to prevent it. If there is no courage in this matter, the book cannot be from God, from Allah.

Does anyone else see the blindness and absurdity of this refusal of leadership on every side?

Sincerely,
Paschal Baute
Lexington, Ky
January 19
tel 859 - 293 - 5302

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Back in the saddle again...

January 16. 7 weeks post op, total knee surgery.

Am exercising daily and managing the pain fairly well. Resume psych screening for bus drivers tomorrow and Fire Recruits next week. Much time for reflection and some writing, planning outline of my Memoir. Need to get up and down stairs easier and more frequently.,but still playijng with withdrawing from various pain medicines.

Replayed and re-enjoyed Chariots of Fire movie and love the music as it reminds me of much running on Bradenton Beach during my high school years.

Paschal