Kudos to Terry Jones

[jordan179]

Terry Jones finally did burn a Koran, and I am glad of it. In doing so, he confirmed our freedom of speech, as American citizens. And I am pleased to see that others have been following in his footsteps

Comments

[rowyn]

I am content that Terry Jones is *allowed* to burn the koran, but that doesn't mean he's not a jerk and an idiot for doing it. Putting a book on 'trial'? Please. I don't recall burning any book ever doing any demonstrable good.

[jordan179]

First of all, it needed to be done to demonstrate that we still had the right to do it. Secondly, of course it's rude and offensive -- only rude and offensive free speech needs to be protected, as a general rule. Polite and inoffensive speech is rarely threatened, for the obvious reasons.

But if we don't protect the rude and offensive free speech from the Muslims, we'll eventually find speech that we today consider "polite and inoffensive" being threatened as well. And if we establish a tradition of backing down and yielding our liberties, then that's what we'll be likely to do when that happens.

Once you're sliding down a slippery slope, it takes a real effort to stop. Terry Jones made such an effort, and that's for what I praise him.

[rowyn]

Okay, NO ONE is questioning his RIGHT to be an ASSHOLE. I do question your premise that ASSHOLES NEED PRAISE FOR BEING ASSHOLES. I'm not going to go around thanking Nazi apologists, KKK members, or Hamas fans for exercising THEIR rights to free speech, either. Some people are going to be jerks and cretin no matter what. There's no need to cheerlead for how wonderful it is that they are, as if they were an endangered species.

Yes, it's wonderful that they CAN. That's not the same as wonderful that they DO.

[blue_sky_day]

It always amazes me how people will spend more time denouncing a man who destroyed one copy of a widely published book than on people who use that action to murder and riot.

Actually, it amazes me that any non-Muslim spends any time denouncing Pastor Jones at all. I applaud his actions, and am considering sending a donation to his church.

[sianmink]

It's not like they aren't going to murder and riot just because some guy decided not to be disrespectful.

We EXPECT this kind of behavior from the Arab world, as sad as that is. We just expect better of our own.

[mosinging1986]

It always amazes me how people will spend more time denouncing a man who destroyed one copy of a widely published book than on people who use that action to murder and riot.

I was going to say the exact same thing. Thanks for saving me the post.

[moropus]

He needs to be recognized for being one of the few people with the nerve to not bow down to to a spread of creeping Islamic law. In Great Britain, its widely known that they force underage girls into arranged marriages against their will and that husbands routinely beat the crap out of the wives, but nobody stops them because of PC. Female genital mutilation is often practiced under the consideration of religious freedom and don't try to tell me otherwise, because I lived there 6 1/2 years. If Lutherans did that, they would be stopped. Now if Jones was burning the Bible, would the same people care? Of course not. But he is trying to stop the spread of Islamic law in America and you are opposed to it

[moropus]

http://www.doveworld.org/contact

Tell him what you think. I'm sure he'd love to know.

[mosinging1986]

Thanks for the contact info! I need to tell him thanks for having the courage that most people today are lacking.

[schpydurx]

Let's not forget the pimping of inferior white girls.

[moropus]

http://eastmnweeklynews.com/2010/11/14/outrage-over-somali-gangs-children-sex-rings-in-minnesota.html

And that's already in safe mid west America.

[gothelittle]

The main difference being that Nazis, KKK, and Hamas go out and kill people to make a point, and this guy, tasteless or not, was merely burning a book.

Wood pulp.

A thing that has not even been living matter for probably years by now.

I would not equate burning wood pulp to burning a human being alive.

[rowyn]

My point is that speech denying the Holocaust or supportive of racism or arguing that Hamas are 'freedom fighters' is also protected speech. It is not legal to persecute Jews or to lynch blacks. It is, however, legal to be a Nazi or a KKK member. Political speech is free in the USA (as it should be) no matter how hateful. That doesn't mean I need to be grateful and appreciative every time someone expresses an appalling sentiment.

I did not mean to imply that Jones was 'just as bad as a Nazi', and apologize for giving that impression. He's not even as bad as a Holocaust denier, or any of the other examples I gave of likewise protected speech. I was trying to come up with the most extreme examples of protected speech that I could think of, and the only similarity I intended was 'these are all protected'. Certainly not 'these are all equally offensive'.

[cutelildrow]

Funny really, that it doesn't seem to come up at all that the Muslims have no problems with killing their own. I wonder if anyone here can still watch the mob lynching of the Ahmadi Muslims in Indonesia...

Oh wait, that doesn't count, because we expect Muslims to behave like monsters towards everyone and we're supposed to tolerate it for some reason, just to prove we're 'bigger than they are.'

/tongue in cheek (I'm not bigger than most people, does that give me Omniscient License Morality to not tolerate it and treat it the way it should be and Kill It With Fire?) /tongue in cheek

[gothelittle]

The West is particularly suicidal in this regard.

If they are monsters and thus incapable of human behavior, then we should control them as we'd control any dangerous wild animal... through a mixture of elimination and caging.

If they are human beings who are behaving like monsters, then we should accept human behavior of them and do whatever we think will teach and enforce human behavior.

But to claim that they are monsters that cannot conform to human behavior, so they should be permitted to run about and kill people as they please?

[cutelildrow]

See that doesn't even make any sense. In every single part of humanity and history, humans have always hunted down monsters, especially those that kill humans.

In the past, that is how heroes were made.

If they want to be monsters and should be considered as such, then we should be allowed, on the weight of our own mythos and responsibility towards other humans to regard them as monsters and not human, as they themselves make that claim in order to hold themselves above human rules... and we should be able to hunt them down and destroy them like any other threat to humanity.