Burning Qurans and Muslim retaliation: Ignorant Hate and Ignorant Hate
The warm and friendly monument to tolerance on the front lawn at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL.
As of now Pastor Terry Jones is still planning to burn a number of Qurans this Saturday night to commemorate September 11th. Jones is a firm believer that Islam is evil and thoroughly enjoys poking the world's Muslim's with sharp verbal sticks. He even wrote a book called "Islam is of the Devil." Can't you just feel the love around this church?
Jones' proposed action is outrageous. It is slap in the face to all the Muslims around the world that do not practice hate and violence. We are talking the religious equivalent of burning a cross in someone's front yard. A thinking person might wonder if Jones is trying to turn the nonviolent majority of Muslims to violence too. You have to wonder how Jones and his followers would react to someone planning a Bible burning party.
However, in this country Jones and his heavily armed followers have the absolute right to burn what ever books they choose. One of the tradeoffs on our freedom is to allow people to like Jones, Rev. Phelps, Nancy Pelosi and others to make outrageous political and religious statements without fear of reprisal. If we stop Jones, then who will draw the lines and where will those lines eventually end up?
That brings us to the second half of the equation. Protests of Jones' proposed Quran burning are already taking place around the world. Jones was burned in effigy along with an American flag in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gen. David Petraeus expressed grave concerns that this one nut job's Saturday night bonfire could lead to increases in attacks on American citizens around the world. New, highly public calls for for violence against Americans are being made every day because of it.
Even the suggestion of burning Qurans put really big targets on Jones and his followers. Aside from the obvious peril of his action, Jones claims he is receiving a steady stream of death threats. As a result, Jones and all of his closest followers are now packing guns in plain open sight. So we now have jumpy paranoids with delusions of some kind of Holy directive walking around with guns and constantly looking over their shoulders. Hope no one pops a lunch bag behind them. Hope they don't shoot one of the kids.
As outrageous as Jones' proposed Quran burning is, Muslims around world need to get up to speed on a few things.
The most basic of those things is that we enjoy constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion and speech here. That guarantee does not change just because something in your religion says something someone else does warrants some kind of Holy Jihad. This idiot and his sheep are allowed to speak their minds and put on this stupid show just as Muslims are allowed to peacefully protest his actions. But this is just one loose wing nut and a handful of idiot followers out of a population over 300 million people.
While it is not too difficult to understand Muslims' frustration with Pastor Jones, it will never be acceptable to the people of the United States to avenge his statements or protests with violence. Targeting the rest of the American population both at home and abroad because of this one idiot is not a way to win friends and influence people around here. Even though targeting Pastor Jones might be more palatable then targeting random Americans, even that is not acceptable.
We, the citizens of the United States are not going to allow Muslims or anyone else override our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. This is especially true if the reason is simply because someone exercising their right makes you mad.
Pastor Terry getting another five minutes on CNN.
Has anyone told Pastor Jones that he spelled Quran wrong?
I like to think of religion like a fine Irish Whiskey. They are both marvelous things when taken in moderation.
- Monsignor Francis O'Dell