CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS 25

There was a lawsuit in a London, England court room concerning plagiarism and copyright infringement. Was that an interesting story? Not particularly, but what is worth writing about is the content of the suit. You see, this was about two books – The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigert and Richard Leigh and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Additionally there was a movie which was in theaters in May 2006 based on The Da Vinci Code book which has sold 40,000,000 worldwide to date.

The central theme of both books and the movie is that Jesus, yes Jesus, the son of God, fathered a child with Mary Magdalene and an ultra secret organization called the Priory of Sion has concealed and protected the bloodline of Him which exists even today. I do not classify myself an especially ardent Christian, yet I find this postulation extremely offensive. How much more must the millions of highly devout and fervent Christians around the world feel the obloquy caused by the lese majesty and calumny heaped upon their religion?

There has been some criticism and complains about The Da Vinci Code book and was more when the movie came out, yet there has not been worldwide rioting, murder, and mayhem (don’t get ahead of me here – wait for the following paragraph). I understand why not in secular Europe where fewer than 10% of the people find themselves in church on Sundays. It seems only the young unhinged anarchists and Luddites in Europe feel passionate about anything. Perhaps that explains why most European countries have a less than replacement fertility rate. Yet how about the Christians in the Americas, Africa, and Asia?

In my mind and I believe in many others, the cartoons which ridiculed and imprecated the prophet Mohammed were no difference in substance as applied to Islam from the aforementioned books and movie as referenced to Christianity. What then accounts for the difference in reactions of Christians and Muslims? A Muslim might say that if Christians do not defend their religion then that is their problem not ours. I suppose, for Muslims, issuing fatwas (fatwi plural?) willy-nilly, calling for the deaths of every Tom, Dick, and Harry even remotely connected to the cartoons, once again calling for the death of Salmon Rushdie now that he is being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, and the now ever so tiresome mob marches through the streets burning flags and shouting death to Israel, America, Denmark, etc. qualify as normal defenses of their faith. Rational people would disagree. Does it mean then that Muslims are irrational fanatics? Christians are flaccid and craven? Or Christians are tolerant and kindly? And Muslims are simply mawkish and emotionally immature? One thing can be stated with reasonable certainty: There is and has long been, as written about by octogenarian Islamic specialist, the British Bernard Lewis (he reads the Koran in the original Arabic), a continent wide chasm in the general philosophy, religious, social, governmental, and world outlook of Muslims and Christians.