Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Don't Torch the Quran

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center has designated Saturday, 9/11 as the International Burn the Quran Day. He has about 200 Qurans ready to ignite at the Church named for the Dove, an international symbol of peace.

Pastor Jones is now praying for a solution. Is he praying to the malevolent Old Testament God, the God who might smite the Qurans with fire and brimstone, or the forgiving Jesus of the New Testament? Remember also that God helps those who help themselves.

God has been silent on the Quran for the past 14 centuries, unless you consider the Christian victories at Lepanto and the Gates of Vienna, and the reconquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 as acts of God.

The Iman behind the Mosque at Ground Zero is preaching tolerance, but his actions betray his words. Intolerance does not breed tolerance; it breeds intolerance.

Their actions seem fueled by the widespread opposition their proposals have engendered.

The Supreme Court has upheld the First Amendment Right to burn the American Flag. If we can therefore burn Old Glory, no matter how despicable, then clearly we can also burn the Quran, equally a despicable act, and clearly sacrilegious to over a billion people.

A small sect in Kansas, the Westboro Baptist Church, has been protesting at military funerals. Their message is that the military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are caused by the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality. A court has upheld their constitutional right to protest – again a constitutional, but outrageous, act which gives them their 15 minutes of fame.

Pro-lifers have torched abortion clinics and killed abortion doctors, but belief in human life doesn’t justify murder and arson.

We also have the right to act stupid, but that doesn’t mean we should.

Book burning is back in vogue, but we shouldn't join the Nazis in embracing the practice.

General Petraeus has asked that the Qurans not be burnt, because to burn them would further fuel the Anti-Americanism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, putting more of our brave soldiers at risk. The general may well be right on this, but the militants in the Mideast don’t need much of an additional incentive to try and destroy us.

Many of them act on a hair trigger when any affront to Islam is mentioned. Already in Kabul they have burned the American Flag and an effigy of Pastor Jones, and are calling for the death of President Obama in response to Burn the Koran Day. Pastor Jones hasn’t done anything yet.

Mayor Bloomberg of New York supports the establishment of the mosque and community center at Ground Zero. He also supports the right to burn Qurans. The public wishes a plague on both the mosque and the Quran burning. It’s a good thing for Mayor Bloomberg that he won reelection last year.

Pastor Jones is praying. Hopefully he will see the light, or even read the Quran.

In the meantime Pastor Jones can sell more copies of his book, Islam is of the Devil.

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