Ken Berwitz

As you certainly know by now, there is a church in Gainesville, Florida that intends to commemorate 9/11 by burning copies of the koran, which they describe as evil. 

This has caused a huge ruckus, with national politicians weighing in on how terrible it is.  General David Petraeus is on record as saying that it will put our troops in danger.  There already have been large demonstrations in Muslim countries over it, complete with burning of the USA flag.

Barrett Kalellis, writing for dailycaller.com, has an interesting take on the proposed koran-burning.  Here are a few key excerpts:

When Gen. David Petraeus weighed in against a nutty evangelical Florida preacher who wants to have a Quran burning on September 11, an international incident was born.  Petraeus apparently thinks this insulting symbolic gesture will push hyperexcitable Muslims into a murderous frenzy and add to the dangers our soldiers already face in Islamic countries.

 

In a country where flag, bra and draft-card burning was once commonplace, and where UAW workers used to bash Japanese cars with sledgehammers — all forms of emotional and symbolic protest — it seems strange that a yokel pastor

 

in the bowels of Gainesville would warrant media attention at all, no matter what he said he was going to do.

 

In the jerkiest of knee-jerk reactions, news anchors and pundits have castigated the pastor, Terry Jones, as the vilest sort of ignorant bigot, regardless of his rationale for wanting to burn the Islamic holy book. Most claim he is just being stupid by succumbing to unnecessary provocation.

 

As usually understood, a bigot is someone who is intolerant of the beliefs of others.  But only an uncritical mind would claim that all beliefs deserve tolerance.  Some clearly do not.  Is Christopher Hitchens a bigot because he writes books and gives speeches vilifying religion in general and Christianity in particular?

 

That brings us to Islam.

 

Jones wants to burn the Quran because he believes Islam is an evil religion.  Islam’s central texts command Muslims to either kill infidels, force them to convert to Islam, or make them pay a punishing tax. In particular, Jews and Christians should be singled out for murder.  The texts also mandate that Muslims institute Sharia law anywhere and everywhere that conditions are ripe, according to Allah, or Muhammad or whomever.

 

Excuse me, but should thinking persons anywhere countenance the commands of this belligerent “religion” uncritically, when it has brought so much warfare, savagery, rapine, backwardness and human suffering to millions for the past 1,300 years?  Are we to remain silent, simply because of an unwritten law that inveighs against criticizing another’s religious beliefs, regardless of how noxious they may be?

 

The hapless pastor in Gainesville is protesting in the only way he knows how.  Burning the Quran may be stupid, but it’s similar to things the “Arab street” does on a regular basis — like trampling on or burning the American flag, burning Uncle Sam in effigy, or shouting “Death to America. Death to the Great Satan.”

 

But ask yourself, how does burning a Quran compare to the filming of the beheading of Daniel Pearl and other Americans, Britons and anyone else that Al-Qaeda or the Taliban doesn’t like?  What about the stoning of women or the hanging of homosexuals?

 

The stakes are high.  Just last week, Iranian cleric Mesbah Yazdi said, “Democracy, freedom, and human rights have no place” in Islam. Call me a bigot, if you will, but we have to do whatever it takes to keep such a system off our shores. After all, what are we fighting for?

My personal opinion is that the pastor, Terry Jones, is a classic dumbass, and his congregants are fools if they go along with him. 

The old and new testament are loaded with violence and genocide against specific groups.  That doesn't make every Christian and Jew a murdering hater.   Your religion is how you practice that religion, not the literal narratives of every passage in the bible or the koran.

Burn a koran and you are not getting back at people who hate other people's religious beliefs.  You are joining them. 

When you burn a koran you are attacking not just the lunatics who want every infidel either Islamic or dead, you are attacking every Muslim whose practice of Islam is entirely peaceful; who want nothing other than to "live and let live".

And before you tell me I'm being naive about this, keep in mind that for many yeas there have been millions and millions of Muslims living in the United States.  If they all were bloodthirsty radicals, we would be subjected to terrorist attacks throughout the country every day.  Are we?

Ok, point made.

But there is another point to be made as well. 

The stupid actions of one dumbass Pastor in one small church in one city amount to nothing in the great scheme of things.  If it weren't for media deciding this was some kind of major news event and treating it as such, no one would even know about the dumbass preacher and his followers, let alone care about them.   

This demonstrates the power of media to turn nothing into something.

And, very importantly, it shows that, my earlier comments notwithstanding, there are a great many Muslims who hate us, wish us death, and will project even a minuscule provocation by a handful of people into an affront to Islam by all of us. 

These are the Islamic nutjobs we do have reason to worry about.  Let's never forget they're out there too and absolutely must be dealt with.