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"But in America, there is the
freedom to be ignorant"
Today
I looked up the definition of inflagrante delicto: it comes from Latin
- "in a blazing offence" - from which we get the term "caught
red-handed." So it may be it ironic that the act of burning a religious
holy book has brought out the Christian Right's Islamophobia: it's been
there all along, but this time it was caught in the act just as its
homophobia was caught in the act with Fred Phelps' antics at Matthew
Shepard's funeral.
And while we might argue that anything associated
with Westboro Baptist Church would be discounted as in bad taste, an
ally of the church - the Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville,
Fla, however, is trying to prove that bad taste can be deadly. In a
news item that summarily falls into the WTF? category:
(CNN) -- The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning the demonstration "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.
"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.
And to further solidify the proof of his idiocy, Pastor Jones of Dove World Outreach Center
...insists the event is "neither an act of love nor of hate," but a warning against what it calls the threats posed by Islam.
The website of Dove World Outreach Center (activew
membership - 50) is a chilling affair, primatily because he so
purposely demonizes Islam and the Christian Right's usual targets (the
LGBT community and Obama, e.g.) referring to them all as "evil." The
undertone of "destroy them before they destroy us" is so prevalent
that it renders his "neither an act of love nor hate" statement totally
meaningless. He expounds on the "unbelivable cruelty" of radical Islam
while negating the fact that his rhetoric will cause harm to Muslims in
this country because, of course, there are no Muslims in America who
are not part of radical Islam.
BTW: Jones boasts that he has never read the Quran.
There is, of course, a plethora of Christian leaders calling the proposed September 11th International Burn A Koran Day an abomination. The most insightful and glaring protests, however have come from the Gainesville, FL communities. One of them has a website to which people can affix their name to a petition
From Please Don't Burn The Koran:
We the people of the City of Gainesville Florida, and others everywhere who support freedom of religion, sincerely request that the Dove World Outreach Center Church not proceed with their plans to burn the Koran on 9/11 or at any other time. Freedom of religion is a founding principle of our Constitution and the burning of any people's sacred texts is in direct opposition to this principle. If you proceed with your plans to burn the Koran, please understand that this act will not serve to lessen our respect for the Muslim faith, but will only serve to lessen our respect for you and what you are preaching.
Jones has refused all demands to stop the book burning.
