A Florida church was yesterday promoting an event where it will burn copies of the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the U.S.| Idiots. Book burning is the act of barbarians. Not only that, but unless the book burners have the power to impose their likes and dislikes on the target population, their little bonfire is merely a feel-good temper tantrum, just like the idiots who burn American flags. If the congregation objects to creeping Sharia, they'd be more effective lobbying for laws that assert the Constitutional separation of church and state overrides and religion's rules, including Sharia... and then keeping a vigilant eye on any legislatorial moves to weaken that position. But that would be hard work, without the immediate endorphin rush of burning paper. |
| Yep. This is only a step or two away from New Black Panther party behavior. In its way, it is as much of an attack on Christianity as a play portraying Jesus as a transexual S&M snuff moviemaker would be. It's the sort of thing that MoveOn or CAIR would make plenty of effort to stage successfully, if they thought they could get away with it. |
The church's pastor, Terry Jones - who has written a book titled "Islam is of The Devil" and sells T-shirts bearing the same message - defended the controversial event. "Islam and Sharia law was responsible for 9/11," Jones told Agence France-Presse.
"We will burn Korans because we think it's time for Christians, for churches, for politicians to stand up and say no; Islam and Sharia law is not welcome in the U.S. We've got many death threats from jihad groups, but we cannot react by fear and we cannot compromise our beliefs. Somebody must stand up."
| If you want to stand up, why not challenge groups to debate you in an open forum on, say, the merits of Shari'a vs. the Constitution or our Judeo-Christian heritage vs. Islamic civilization? Because you're a logically challenged troublemaker, perhaps? |
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) called for the church to cancel the event, The Christian Post reported. "It sounds like the proposed Koran burning is rooted in revenge," NAE president Leith Anderson said. "Yet the Bible says that Christians should 'make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.'"
Mainstream Muslim groups also denounced the move and lamented the sentiments promoted by the Gainesville church. "Unfortunately in [Florida] and nationwide, Islamophobia are actually on the rise," Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) spokesman Ramsey Kilic told AFP. "I'm more afraid of those who have anti-Muslim sentiments and may think this is a legitimate action and may want to attack a mosque or attack a Muslim on the street," he added.
However, Kilic said, "we are not taking any action to avoid this... we don't want to give attention to this, because that's what they want."
Besides the Koran burning ceremony, the Dove World Outreach Center also plans an anti-homosexual event August 2 outside Gainesville's City Hall. The "No Homo Mayor Protest" targets the city's first openly gay mayor, Craig Lowe.
| If this church were to join forces with Westboro, imagine how little power and influence they could have together. |