Divine Testimonies

From my previous testimony, I spoke about Jesus working and living within us in Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and Comforter, and He will teach us everything. I had another encounter where the Holy Spirit acted through me to take a stand and come to the aid of a Muslim man by defending him against verbal insults and persecution. 

It started when reading through a video game forum room where many players would discuss an action role-playing video game. The video game was still in development, but an early build was available which the public could play if they had access. I stumbled upon a topic while browsing the game forum room that one player had posted on the forum room. 

He raised concerns to the developer with an open letter in a written post. He stated that while watching a short video of the gameplay of this game with his friends, the character of this game entered a room and triggered one of the books on the bookshelf. The book fell to the floor in a pile of rubbish and dirt. 

Something interesting about this book caught his eye. He took a screen grab of the live stream and studied the image further with his friends. After close observation, he said in his post that there was a strange resemblance between the book from the game and the Muslims’ Holy Book of The Quran.

He mentioned in his post to the game developers that if it was either intended or not to please suggest to the art teams in replacing the texture of that book to something else before launching the game to the public. He also stated that he was hoping to have a reply from the developers concerning this issue, avoiding any negative influence on Muslim fans, for this could be offensive to them. 

What followed was shocked and appalling; I could not believe what followed from other players in response to this Muslim open post. The responses went on for fifteen long pages; page after page there was nothing but discrimination towards him and religious people. I had to filter out some of the vulgar languages that were used against this Muslim man and rephrase some of the sentences, but here are some of the comments they posted.

“In my humble opinion, it should not be where it is in the game. It should be neatly placed in an outhouse, along with every other religious scripture, so that our heroes have something to read while they take a dump.” 

“Grow up and get out of the forums!” 

“No one cares! You don’t have the right to be offended. If you are offended by something this stupid get out of here!” 

“In the dirt where it belongs.”

“I’m very happy to know that Muslims are offended. It will make the game better. I love this crusade against them!” 

“Just bury this Muslim poster, dislike his post if you don’t agree. That way no one will pay attention to this kind of rubbish! Mission accomplished!”

At this point, I did not know how to feel about what I was reading with all these disgusting comments. Part of me wanted to stay and stand up for this Muslim man, the other part of me was saying to walk away because they will lash out at you as well if I get involved. I got up from my seat and stood in the hallway for a short while, contemplating on whether or not I should respond and defend him from these attacks. 

I became very unsettled that I decided I could not walk away or keep silent from this kind of behaviour anymore. I left a lengthy post in response to the messages left by the other players. First, I spoke in regards to his concerns about being offended by what he saw from the game and that the way he wrote his open letter to the developers was polite and honest.

I continued saying to the Muslim player, “Neither you or anyone else (including myself) will get support from non-religious people, but we are always mocked for our beliefs and are shown hatred just because we express our faith openly. You have my support, and I would have reacted in the same way.” 

I then turned my attention to the people who left the offensive and aggressive responses to the Muslim man. Here is what I said to them, 

“Nothing will stop me from expressing my views or my faith in front of others. If I found something discriminating or offensive against my Christian faith, I would speak my mind carefully but firmly against what was said just as anyone else would. “Your behaviour in response to this Muslim player is outright disgusting and discriminating against his religion. It is also an attack on others including myself who also have faith!" 

"He was only expressing his views, and he has a right to them just as everyone else here has. He feels that there is an issue with that book featured in the game closely resembling The Holy Quran, which he saw laying in a pile of rubbish or dirt. No matter how trivial this issue is to some of you, no one should be showing this kind of discriminating behaviour."

"We are not all perfect, but if you want respect from others, then all of you should start respecting people of different faiths even if you do not share the same point of views as them. “I proudly and openly will say that I am a Christian, and I felt disgusted by your vulgar responses when he did nothing wrong. I have never had any issues or complaints against people who do not believe, and I show them mutual respect and listen to their reasons for believing that God does not exist." 

“However, those with no faith give us nothing but hostility and persecution for our beliefs, thinking we’re nothing but hypocrites. Anyone here that is reading these comments and of faith, do not be afraid to express your faith openly if you feel attacked. You have a right to express yourself, just as they do.”

This is where I left my response in the forum topic. I left and never came back. I was expecting to receive hostile responses for what I said, but seeing someone who was innocent and came under attack by a pack of vicious wolves, I just had to step in. I felt so sickened and heartbroken by what I had seen, that a single Muslim was a target for doing absolutely nothing. 

It is a difficult thing not to get involved because you worry about your safety or what kind of backlash you may receive for intervening. However, as a follower of Christ, who saved me by taking my sins to the cross, I had to carry my cross too.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15: 13). 

“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82: 3– 4).

By

Richard Kansley