Diversity is our strength and all that, and we all saw it in our social studies books back in seventh grade: smiling children, all carefully chosen to represent a smorgasbord of races and ethnicities, happily playing together without a care in the world. A recent incident in Queens, N.Y., however, shows how our indefatigable commitment to diversity really works in practice.
The New York Post reported Saturday that “a NYC taxi driver was hit with a hate crime [charge] for allegedly beheading a statue depicting a young Jesus outside a Queens Catholic church, prosecutors said.” The iconoclast who did the deed was one Jamshaid Choudhry, who lives in Hollis, Queens. “Jamshaid” is a Persian name that is common among Muslims in central and south Asia. Choudhry “was arrested Thursday night and charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime and other related crimes for allegedly decapitating the statue outside of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in Fresh Meadows on June 30.”
PHOTOS: Statue of child Jesus at Queens church decapitated; NYPD investigates as hate crime https://t.co/nHK2qXDwCL pic.twitter.com/oJQHpUrNGC
— 1010 WINS (@1010WINS) July 1, 2024
Now why would anyone want to do something as bizarre as beheading a statue? The most obvious answer would be that the perpetrator hated the person who was depicted, and that is likely true in this case. The Qur’an says that Jesus is a prophet but denies the central Christian tenet that He is God become man. In fact, it states that those who believe such a thing aren't believers at all: “They indeed have disbelieved who say, Indeed, Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary” (5:17).
The Qur’an even depicts Allah asking Jesus if he told his followers to worship him as God, and Jesus denies having done so. The passage contains a misunderstanding of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as consisting of Allah, Jesus, and Mary, but its denial of Christ’s divinity is unmistakable: “And when Allah said, O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to mankind, Take me and my mother as two gods besides Allah? He said, Be glorified. It was not for me to say what I had no right to say. If I said it, then you know it. You know what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in your mind. Indeed, you, only you, are the knower of hidden things” (5:116).
The Qur’an adds that those who say Jesus is the Son of God are under the curse of Allah: “And the Jews say, Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say, The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the statements of those who disbelieved before. May Allah curse them. How perverse they are” (9:30).
The Islamic holy book also denies the crucifixion of Christ, although it claims that the Jews believed they had crucified Christ when in fact they had not: “And because of their saying, We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, they did not kill him nor crucify him, but it seemed so to them” (4:157).
And so when Jamshaid Choudhry saw the statue of Jesus outside Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, his own religious tradition told him that it was an abomination in numerous ways. It was, of course, art representing the human form, which Islam forbids. It was a depiction of a prophet of Allah, which many Muslims believe is particularly offensive as a temptation to idolatry. And it depicted a young man, reflecting the Christian belief in the incarnation of God in Christ, which from the Islamic perspective is an insult to Allah, bringing down his curse.
And so Choudhry apparently set out to right these wrongs with cool determination. The Post notes that “the twisted, caught-on-camera tantrum began casually.” Choudhry “pulled up to the front of the church around 5:30 a.m. and calmly crossed the street, before removing a shoe and charging toward white marble statues of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, according to police and footage released by the Diocese of Brooklyn.” Once there, he “swatted the heads of Mary and Joseph with his shoe, then turned his attention to Jesus and hacked at its head until it went spinning to the ground, caught-on-camera footage shows.”
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After he had done what he came to do, Choudhry “is then seen calmly walking off, shoe still in hand.” So he was calm both before and after beheading the statue, suggesting that he had the cool assurance of a man who knows that he is doing the right thing.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz uttered the usual platitudes: “We will not tolerate unprovoked attacks, especially those driven by hate. Queens stands as a beacon of diversity and inclusivity, where freedom of religion and expression are celebrated as fundamental pillars of our democracy.”
Terrific, but one thing is absolutely certain: neither Katz nor anyone else involved with this case will even come close to suggesting that Choudhry’s religious beliefs may have had something to do with his actions. To suggest such a thing would be “Islamophobic.” And so nothing will be done to address the root cause of such behavior. That means it will happen again.
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