More media coverage on an issue where I want to say to the clueless,  bigoted, narrow-focused conservative Christian people:  “Shut up,  for Jesus’ sake!”   So I’ll say it:

SHUT UP FOR JESUS’ SAKE!  before you embarass yourself!…… (too late)

Detractors say the 220-page book, which discusses 35 verses from Islam’s holy text, could convert Americans to the religion of terrorists blamed for the deaths of about 3,000 people on Sept. 11.

It could “convert them”????   Get a clue, people!  If the religion of Islam is so evil,  as you say,  then how in the world could the “study” of such be convincing enough to “convert them”? 

“It’s almost farcical that so many people would follow it (Islam) and call it a religion of peace,” said Glover, whose conservative Christian group recruited three unidentified students for the lawsuit against UNC. “It means peace through submission to Allah, and for everyone else it means death.”

The farce,  Mr. Glover,  is that you can be a Chrsitian and say you believe in a Scripture that teaches the same exact stuff regarding the “pagan enemy”,  where God is reported to have ordered the wholesale slaughter of all people in a city…and even the animals……   What do you do with that?  There’s a “special interpretation” called for there,  one which you refuse to grant to the Islam relgion when it comes to their own “seemingly contradictory” texts and passages.  I could say that it’s “almost farcical that so many people would follow the Christian Right and call it a religion of Jesus when its own followers are so militant,  quick to judgement,  and quick to call for retaliation”.  (Of course,  there I go again,  lumping these examples into the entire “Christian right”,  but that’s OK, though,  right Mr. Glover?  Isn’t that the way it’s done?  Aren’t all Muslims of the same ilk and of the same mind about how the Quran is interpreted as were the terrorists and their supporters? Isn’t this the way to approach these matters? )

James Moeser, chancellor of UNC’s Chapel Hill campus, said the intensity of discussion surrounding the issue demonstrates a need for information.

Mr. Moeser is a refreshing example of the “thinking and discerning” theologian,  one who is clearly “thinking” and acting on the desire for education and rationality rather than blind prejudice and fear,  perpretated by ,  once agin,  clueless loudmouths of the religious right.   (Not all adherents of the “Christian Right” are clueless and/or loudmouths,  but these clowns  are).

“We need to explore our own religious biases in this country, our own fear of examination, our own intolerance,” Moeser said. “The faculty has succeeded in choosing a book that is provocative in the best sense of the word, provocative of inquiry, even controversy. Universities thrive on controversy.”

I guess one could say that the religious right loves it too,  it gives them a chance to air their venom in public, and once again embarass the people who strive to live as Jesus would,  and look at the person.