What started out as a stupid idea has quickly become the stupidest idea.
The mustached pastor named Terry Jones who is planning to commemorate September 11th this Saturday by staging a Qu’ran burning at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida is now being attacked by everyone everywhere.
Most notably, Gen. David Petraeus issued a forceful statement Monday condemning Jones’s shortsighted plan.
“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan,” Gen. Petraeus told “The Wall Street Journal.” “It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems –- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”
“Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday,” he said. “Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult.”
The book-burning ceremony coincides with a counter-insurgency campaign in which Petraeus and 120,000 U.S. troops are trying to win support for Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government, and help with defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan.
This morning, Jones took to a Florida radio station to respond to Petraeus in the most predictable way possible. “We think the message is that important. We cannot back down just because of fear, because if we back down, it won’t make Islam any more moderate.”
Accusing Petraeus of wanting to “back down just because of fear” is a feisty attribution to make of the guy leading America’s efforts in the Middle East. One can only imagine that Jones, who wears a loaded pistol strapped to his thigh and has a giant “Braveheart” poster in his office, was under a literally insane amount of pressure when he made it.
For one, protests are occurring Afghanistan’s major cities. A protest in Jakarta was staged in front of the U.S. embassy, and a protest in Kabul produced this video of enraged civilians burning an effigy of Jones.
It’s hard to know if Jones finds these protests scary, irritating, or inspiring, but the objections he’s receiving from other should-be-like-minded extremists must really be what’s driving him mad.
Even an armed Christian militia that is actually called “Right Wing Extreme” and was planning on providing security for the event has disassociated itself from Jones, reports “Christianity Today.”
Unfortunately, nothing seems to be mitigating Jones’s drive to follow through with this passion project. He wrote on his blog this morning:
Let’s learn a new word on the first day of school, shall we? Of course all of Gainesville, Florida knows the phrases: Islam is of the Devil and International Burn a Koran Day. Why is this good? Because we are trying to get them and the rest of America to stop being dhimmwits.
September 07, 2010 at 6:27 pm, Albertsfe said:
So, Dove members, how would you feel if in Mosques around the world
the Christian Bible were burnt on 9/11???? How about that? Would you
feel anger and outrage? OF COURSE YOU WOULD. How can any
Christian, of any stripe, condone a symbolic act that strikes at the heart
of bigotry and prejudice. Shame on your pastor and any one who
supports him. YOU, Dove, are the problem, not the Muslims.
September 07, 2010 at 6:41 pm, TAP1 said:
Hey DumbA–, muslims around the world are already burning the christian bible, and desecrating the American flag in every possible way. Why are we suppose to be tolerant of their attacks but they don't have to be tolerant of us?
September 08, 2010 at 12:38 am, me said:
BECAUSE WE ARE FUCKING AMERICANS AND WE'RE SO MUCH BETTER THAN ALL THAT IGNORANCE. Time for retribution is over, the anger leads to this irrationality, and while we bicker, the terrorists win because that kind of ignorance proves their suspicions of us right.
September 08, 2010 at 11:23 pm, Zeros_vision said:
wake up fellow! (Albertsfe)…
what rock have you been sleeping under?
muslims all around the world have been burning the Holy Bible for years!!!…
bigotry and prejudice (?)…
how do ya figure?….
this nation (America) was formed by GOD, under GOD for GOD!
not mohammed, not budha, not for some cow, a chicken, nor a goat…
hey, let these heathen religious followers remain in their own nation, not this one!
to say Pastor Jones is a bigot or prejudice is abserd!!!!
i dont have a koran, else it would have been burned long ago….
more power to ya Pastor Jones
September 07, 2010 at 6:30 pm, Smokewizard2 said:
While I respect their 1st amendment right to expression, one can only hope that these wackos (in case readers are confused, I'm referring to the Dove World Outreach Center and Pastor Jones) will back away from the edge and do the right thing. This act of pure stupidity they have planned will drive all of us to join Al Qaeda. Who wants to be associated with them? They make me ashamed to be an American.
September 08, 2010 at 11:35 pm, Zeros_vision said:
my dear Smokewizard2~~~~~
you & people with your like-mind makes me ashamed to be an american!
i was born in the USA, my parents, their parents and their great-great-grand-parents were born in the USA. we dont need this stumblingblock false religion shoved in our faces.
go back to mecca Smokewizard2!~~~~~~~~~~
September 07, 2010 at 7:34 pm, US Man said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR7Ea8T8sTQ
the american people are the most understanding people of islam and most become moslem .. because they read … and want to know about islam … the muslim respect all prophet and religions … support to burn the Quran dose not stop from the government because they respect muslims ..they don't respect muslims they only afraid of the loosing more on the war
this atch was made by americans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR7Ea8T8sTQ
September 08, 2010 at 11:39 pm, US-of-earl said:
islam is a doctrine of devils!
September 09, 2010 at 7:24 pm, txlady706 said:
This is insane. They are offended? They flew planes in to 2 buildings in NY and more. They continue to perform terrorist activities. And THEY are offended? That’s RICH.
Obama should have no opinion. This is irresponsible of him. This statement by this fool is bad. A DERELICTION OF DUTY and a Seditious ACT. He is the President. His WORDS are ACTIONABLE. His WORDS are SEDITIOUS.
The lefties burn the Bible and the Flag, why should the KORAN be protected?
If this government protects the KORAN, they will be ESTABLISHING special protections for ISLAM. This government, after doing that, will have, in TRUTH established the CALIPH
The president chiming in on this, due to his OFFICE, is establishing a possible protectionist stance for ISLAM. If this is the case, then HE is creating the division. HE is the MULLAH of America. HE will be the American IMAM
The CORE of the Koran is Conquest and submission and DEATH. The core to all other major religions is LIFE and the betterment of it. The Q’RAN is EVIL. To support EVIL is EVIL.
It’s a false argument to say that we should not burn the Q’RAN, because it will cause death. We have a WAR going on people. Don’t you think that they will pull the trigger if they get a chance anyway? The enemy is not laying their weapons down. The appeasement makes them stronger. The Muslim will kick you when you are down, he will not relent. There is no civility. The Q’RAN allows for plunder of the enemy. They are not CIVIL. The Geneva accord is NOT something that they follow.
The soldiers are in DANGER now, what makes one think that the enemy is NOT serious NOW? What kind of ill logic is this? Burning or not burning a book, will not make the soldiers less safe. Americans need to understand that these people WANT YOU ANNIHILATED. They’ll keep you around as slaves. That’s IT.
This is the same as the Cartoonist crap, who, by the way, Angela Merkel was to honor with a free speech award.
These arguments are false. Why is OBAMA fighting FOR the Muslims, while Europe is beginning to wake up to the threat that they have welcomed.
Follow the truth.
September 10, 2010 at 9:44 am, firefly51 said:
Burn, baby burn!!! Burn it all! The Koran is an evil book representative of an evil religion. Let's show these Sodomites who runs this country…and I assure you it isn't the freaking ragheads!! Those weren't Episcopalians flying jets into buildings murdering innocent people. Those were Muslim swine striking a blow against the our country and way of life…Let's burn all of the Muslims off the face of the earth, along with their filthy Korans!
September 12, 2010 at 2:29 am, Terry Jones Reflection: Seven Books We’d Rather Burn than the Quran | Death and Taxes said:
[...] Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center has won much undeserved attention for planning to burn a book in an age when burning every Quran on [...]