I am not in agreement with either side of the uproar of burn the Qur'an day. I do think that it will be a very dangerous and self serving move by Florida pastor Terry Jones. Also, knowing the history of Islamic extremists, I am in agreement that they will retaliate for the burning of their sacred book. The problem? They will retaliate on American citizens that will have no part in Jones’ actions. We could see repercussions from this act for many years to come.
My opinion: While Pastor Jones is covered under the “freedom of speech” of the United States, this is not speech. This is an action. Where is the line drawn when something is deemed to not be speech and is indeed called what it is? In this case a theatrical burning of the Qur'an to show his personal disgust with a violent faction of the Muslim faith. If this were just for his church members and himself, then no one else would have known about this, no media involvement and no threats from the extremists that have had their attention drawn to his church. Would this even be an issue if the media circus had not grabbed hold of this and sent it across the globe? Will the media be there to make sure the smoke rises on the 11th? I am sure they will be.
The coverage of this by the media brings me to my next point. Where is this much coverage of bible burnings? Where is the public outcry when Christianity is attacked? This is proven by Comedy Central’s South Park program. They censored the episode that insulted Muhammad, but they openly mock Christ and Christianity very regularly. Why is that allowable, but is not for the Muslim religion? Seems to be double standards from media and TV. I assume this is because Christianity is a peaceful religion, or at least that is what I hope is the reason. I would like to think that Christians are outraged at these things and are doing something about it. Maybe not at the extreme level that the Muslims go to, but doing something.
Would Pastor Jones be doing this without media attention? Who knows, but if this was for something other than a show we would definitely not be hearing anything about it. If this was a personal conviction of Pastor Jones he would have just called his church membership together and said “we’re going to burn a Qur'an tonight” and done it. There wouldn’t have been a media blitz with a countdown clock on CNN (not really, but there is a lot of coverage) had this not been told to the press by someone and that someone had to come from that church.
I don’t know this mans convictions. I have no idea why he wants to do this. I only know that chances are the extremist Muslims are going to take this a run with it, opening the doors for a “reason” to do evil things. They look for “reasons” to cause destruction and this is a “reason” to them. They hate the USA already and they will lump all of Christendom together with this lone church, they will lump all US citizens together with this lone church and life is going to be very different from now on. I am sure the “terror Alert” will be maxed out on September 11th and following. I just pray that none of our troops or civilians are harmed because of this act.
When you start to hear things attributed to this book burning, just keep in mind that Muslims burn Christians. They do not only burn our Bibles, they burn our brothers and sisters alive for not renouncing their faith. I have seen videos of this. Check out The Voice of the Martyrs webpage if you want to know what real persecution is. It is not being laughed at work for praying before you eat, it is being burned alive because you hold fast to the cross of Jesus and what He did for you. It is loving Christ more than anything and singing hymns while your skin melts from your bones.
Christians do need to take a strong stand against these horrendous acts. To what extreme I have no idea. But to be passive and let dear brothers and sisters be tortured for their faith is unacceptable. But, having a “Burn the Qur'an” day is not the way to do it.
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