The Stupidity of Rev. Terry Jones and His “International Burn-a-Koran Day”

September 8, 2010

The Stupidity of Rev. Terry Jones and His “International Burn-a-Koran Day”

As September 11th approaches people will remember 9/11/2001 as the day America was attacked from the air by Muslim extremists. Planes flown into the buildings of the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Heroes of Flight 93 who gave their lives by forcing their captors to abort the mission of destroying the White House and instead slamming the plane into an unpopulated field in Pennsylvania. More than 3000 people killed as a result of those attacks. Lives of the victims ended and families of the victims forever scarred. Everyone remembers where they were that day and what they were doing when they heard the news and watched in horror. America’s anger brought a president to easily lead a nation into two wars that may last another decade – whether or not the name of our troops are changed from “combat” troops to “advisers,” more young lives will be lost.

What have we learned in the decade since 9/11? That all Muslims are not fanatics and all fanatics are not Muslim. In the 9 years since 9/11 we have seen plenty of horrific scenes on the news that aren’t Muslim related. Fanatics are crazy people who attach themselves to an idea and kill in it’s name. The idea doesn’t have to be a religious doctrine. It could be political, social, personal, or simply because voices told them to kill others.

We, as a nation are a majority of rational thinking individuals who understand that within any non-violent group there are extremists who only need one line of an entire text to interpret and twist in order to validate their desire to kill. We also understand that it is wrong to fault an entire group for the evil of a few. The majority of whites don’t believe all blacks are gun carrying gang members. The majority of blacks don’t believe that all whites are skinheads, or members of the KKK. Most certainly, Americans of any color or religion don’t believe all Muslims are evil, bomb carrying murderers, or that the Koran and its’ teachings is evil.

Christians on the other hand have a problem in the form of a few individuals who spout hate toward others in the name of Christ and Christianity.

One of these individuals is the Reverend Terry Jones, a fire-and-brimstone Florida pastor who was called “idiotic and dangerous” by the U.S. Attorney General on Tuesday, according to reports. A description we agree with.

Rev. Jones wants to hold a protest against Muslims and remember 9/11 by burning the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Never mind the fact that burning books is in itself, vile and repulsive, bringing visions of Hitler enjoying the book burning bonfires in Germany before WWII. The fact that Rev. Jones has called the Koran evil makes him as abhorrent as the Muslim extremists who would kill a Christian for simply not being Muslim.

One sad fact is that Rev. Terry Jones won’t accomplish anything other than further distancing any understanding between Muslims and other religions. For those of you who may be good Christians, how would you feel to see a pile of Bibles being burned and someone preaching how evil the writings found in it are.

The prospect of a gunfight breaking out during the rally does not faze Jones.

“We are definitely prepared to do this,” he told “Nightline.” “We are definitely prepared to give our lives for this particular message.

For Jones, the media coverage he is getting may be what he sought by being a radical himself. He has a .40-caliber pistol that hugs his hip. Many of the roughly 50 members of his Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville are also armed, Jones said, because of death threats. Jones is a desperate attention-seeker: last year it was an “Islam is of the Devil” sign outside his church, referencing a book he wrote of the same title, with members wearing t-shirts promoting that same message. Jone’s book by the way, seems to be no longer available after an extremely short publication run (Amazon lists it as “Out of Stock” and the publishing house appears to have scrubbed it from their list of published books).

The pastor’s daughter from his first marriage, however, thinks her father and his religious group are a “cult.”

“They used mental violence,” Emma Jones told the Gainesville Sun in an interview last year. “They’d say, ‘If you’re not obedient, God will punish you.’”

The other sad fact is that Jones has a right to burn the Koran as the First Amendment affords him. Jones is well aware of this and has stated that, “We expect Muslims here in America to respect, honor, obey, and submit to our constitution.” It is something that by law, he is allowed to do and Jones knows it. Fools and idiots are treated equally in our society and we can not make the Reverend Terry Jones an exception to equal treatment. It’s only regretful that some of the respect he demands doesn’t seem to apply to those Muslims he is insulting.

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