Hannity, Fox, Graham, police & Mt. Vernon

Sean Hannity, Rev. Franklin Graham and Police, what an exciting day!

Friday, April 23, 2010. I got the call from the Sean Hannity Radio show to be on the air with Gabriella Bridgette and Sean to talk about Rev. Franklin Graham’s statement. Rev. Graham made some uncouth remarks about another religion.

I pulled over in Mt. Vernon, Texas and could not find a Starbucks to check on the internet and prepare my talking points. Howver, driving through the town, I found the public library and walked in and talked with the receptionist about my need for a room to be on the radio show, she was excited to hear Sean Hannity and suggested me to use the room upstairs, there was no one up there. During the show, strange things happened at the Library and I have summarized it in the funny side of the story below.

Link: http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/04/hannity-fox-graham-police-mt-vernon.html

At the appointed time, they called me in and I was on the air at 1:00 PM CST. As usual Gabriella was on the air with her shrill voice and creating the hype about Muslims and Islam. Sean was throwing Rev. Graham’s comments, which I agreed partially and affirmed the condemnation of bad acts by anyone. We need to condemn oppression of women in Muslim countries, and oppression of women in every place. Sean attempted to twist my words, “are you saying you can justify mistreatment of women “I turned around and said, you did not hear my condemnation, condemnation was first and then I said, we need to stand against oppression of women in all societies.

Education is critical and singling out the wrong doers and punishing them appropriately is the key to solving the problems. Sean asked how would I educate the terrorists who are looking for the hooris in the paradise. I gave the Mumbai terrorist example where the Muslims did not give them space in their cemetery to bury them, sending a clear message to the terrorists that they will not even get a burial place let alone the cooked up promises of hooris for the terrorists, as it is not in Qur’aan.

My point was if I threaten to murder someone, it’s me whose ass needs to be hauled off and bring justice. Blaming my City Carrollton or my religion Islam is dumb and pointless as you cannot do anything to change Carrollton or Islam, you cannot change Christianity for the wrongs of Crusades, inquisitions, Holocaust etc. neither can you hang a religion, city or the nation, they are intangibles.

The same law applies to the Americans who are incarcerated as the law abiding citizens in the ratios of 1:99, then does it mean All Americans are bad people? That is their logic, when that 1/10th of 1% of Muslims do wrong, blame them not their religion stupid.

I have no disagreement with Rev. Graham or Bridgette condemning oppression, but condemning religion for the bad acts of the people was wrong. Rev Graham should have shown grace and leadership when he was disinvited at the pentagon.

I expect Rev. Graham to be a man of integrity, someone who speaks the truth. He needs to substantiate his words, anyone can say anything, the mouth is free to assemble the words, but to stand the test of truth is what matters. Rev. Graham fails on that. Here is a prayer from a friend Vanja Krupa from face book, and I do hope Rev. Graham makes it a part of his daily morning prayers, ""God, please help me to keep my mouth shut, until I know what I am talking about"

I do hope he revisits his arrogance – about learning and not shooting his mouth off without knowing about Islam. He did not learn a thing from Jesus and I hope he meditates and learns to be a responsible minister. Jesus is about love and inclusiveness; he gave us one of the greatest models of pluralism and inclusiveness.

Several months ago, Glen Beck had called on me, and I refused to go on the show, if he did not give me the time to answer his question and keep interrupting. At least with Sean, he gives the moment to respond, I will give him credit for that. He is determined to drive his point of view and may not want to see another point of view, as that would weaken the strength of his show for his right winger audience.

Critical thinking is required, Rev. Graham is a minister and he needs to be honest. If he calls a religion evil, he better have the facts and not non-sense rhetoric. No religion teaches hatred. It sounds like a drunk babbling with assembling and reassembling a few words. He is a respected member of the community and he needs to consider spreading peace and not hate. Would Jesus approve his actions?

I will make an attempt to reach him and see if he can at least see another point of view like Jesus, if he can, he can marshal his masses to do a lot of good in the world.

May we learn to be inclusive and not push people to dig in their heels, including the terrorists.

NOW THE FUNNY SIDE OF THE STORY

I had things to talk, our show was for one hour and we had to cut it off due to disturbance at the place I was on phone with; the Franklin county Library in Down town Mt. Vernon.

I was attempting to match the shrill voice of Gabriella over the phone and was talking about Terrorism, and in no time the staff of the library stood across me, either they were scared to see this odd looking man wearing a Aussie hat and talking about terrorism with this big black bag and spread out phone and charger paraphernalia or simply the voice in the library. They were telling me to cut off and get off… I told them that I had the permission from the receptionist, and I was on the radio. They were telling me to cut it out. I lost my coherency on the radio with so many disturbances, as the police officer approached me upon their call in. I got off the phone.

We laughed it off, as the police officer had heard me on the radio and I had apologized the staff
members and told them what happened. I took the pictures of the officer and the library to share it on my blog.

WRONG BOOKS

While I was updating on the facebook about the incident, the man next to me was reading the history Encyclopedia of the world and he was on the page about India. He looked at me and I looked at the picture of King Ashoka, my first words were OMG, they had the Turkish head gear on Ashoka. God help the historians and book publishers to at least verify what they are writing.

I was doing a Radio show of my own several years ago, and was looking at the internet for historical information about the Highway built in India from Calcutta to Lahore; it was called the Grand Trunk road built by Sher Shah Suri in around the 10th century. There were several sites out there that claimed it was built by British or someone else. I routinely find mis-information about Hinduism and Islam in books out there in the market.

HOW THE RADIO SHOWS ARE PRODUCED

While I was on the road to Louisville, I had Sean Hannity people called me back again to be on the evening show and they wanted me in a studio, and they were searching for a studio in Texarkana, as I was about 50 miles away on Interstate 30 but found one in Shreveport and I had two hours to get there and per him it was 71 miles and I had 121 Miles to go, there was no way I could have made it in two hours with the unknown rush hour traffic in Shreveport, furthermore, it was going away from my route to Louisville.

A television station called me up to be on their evening news and they were setting up a place in Little Rock , Arkansas and the issue was same – I had two and a half hours to get there and had 180 miles to go. They may reschedule me on Wednesday this week.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN;

I enjoy Willie Nelson’s number on the road again, so was I, and reached Yasmeen’s house in Louisville at 3:00 AM. Drove the 450 Miles stretch straight, thinking about life and the need for people to be divisive. What is the need to hype and for what?

If Rev. Graham spends his energy on peacemaking, he probably can add significantly than lying about other faiths for possible gains of money, as there is no truth in his words. If Gabriella can put the same efforts in creating a better world, she probably can add some good to the world rather than create more clashes. What is their motivation?

Do they understand that they are doing the opposite of their intentions of creating a better world?

When I am with them again, I will talk about this and several other issues.

Mike Ghouse is a frequent guest at the media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. He is a thinker, writer, speaker, optimist and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Co-existence, Peace, Islam, India and Civil Societies. He Presides the Foundation for Pluralism and the World Muslim Congress and Co-Chairs the Center for Interfaith inquiry. He is a board member of the Dallas Peace Center and Memnosyne Foundation and a former commissioner at the City of Carrollton. Mike is a Dallasite for three decades and Carrollton is his home town.

His life mission is to open people's hearts and minds towards fellow beings by mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill. He is a peace maker and an educator with two Masters degrees and working on his doctorate in Psychology. He has two books on the horizon; Pluralism 101, it is all about respecting the otherness of other and Basic Islam- everything you wanted to know about Islam. He has authored over 800 articles on the subjects, many of them are published in the newspapers and magazines around the world. His work is reflected at 3 Websites & 22 Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157623803170989/