Perhaps you remember Terry Jones, but in case you don't let me remind you. Terry Jones is the Florida pastor who was going to burn the Qur'an last year on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Under pressure from everyone, including the President and General David Petraeus, Terry backed down. It was a good decision; there wasn't any reason to burn the Qur'an except to provoke outrage among the Muslim community. Similarly, there is no good reason for me to punch a random guy in the face except to piss that person off, so despite having a really bad and bigoted idea, Jones made the right choice.
Until two weeks ago. With little fanfare, Jones and his congregation (all 30 of them) put the Qur'an on trial (for something), found it guilty (of something), and carried out sentencing - execution by fire. It was a bad idea.
Unfortunately, it provoked a far worse reaction, probably the reaction that Jones wanted. On Friday, a mob in Afghanistan poured out of a mosque and attacked the UN compound in Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan and killed 12 people. The burning was a bad idea; the response is unacceptable.
Here's the thing, in America it's acceptable to have bad ideas. It's even acceptable to carry out bad ideas so long as they don't hurt anyone. Burning a Qur'an hurts no one. In my opinion, Terry Jones is a complete jackass, but this is America, he's allowed to be a complete jackass and he's allowed to burn the Qur'an. In fact, he can burn as many of them as he can afford to buy.
Killing people is never acceptable. Muslims have every right to be offended. They're allowed to call Terry Jones a jackass and say bad things about him. They're not allowed to kill UN workers. Pro-democracy movements are sweeping through the Middle East and the United States is spending money and lives to build a democracy in Afghanistan. This is not the kind of behavior that happens in a democracy. This is not the kind of behavior America should support. Sadly, the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as Muslim clerics in Afghanistan did not condone the killings, they condoned the burning.
Terry Jones said after the burning that Islam is not a religion of peace. Apparently neither is his version of Christianity since it was his actions that led to the violence. Nevertheless, idiot though he may be, Terry Jones was within his rights, the murders in Afghanistan were not.
It is important for Muslims to condemn this behavior, and more importantly, it is important for people in would be democracies to understand how democracy works. It's acceptable to disagree and it's even acceptable to be offensive; it's also acceptable to be offended. It's never acceptable to use violence when you're upset. If Muslims in Afghanistan aren't ready for democracy, if they are going to kill UN workers because of some idiot in Florida, then the United States has no business spending money and committing troops to that country.
Christians in America are offended when Jesus is mocked on South Park. They are offended when people tell them that creationism is a myth believed by silly people. They don't kill. Similarly, most Muslims don't kill when a Danish newspaper publishes a cartoon depicting Mohammed. Unfortunately, some Muslims do. That's not okay, and it's time for moderate and sane Muslims - the vast majority of Muslims - to stand up for morality and sanity against violence. Democracy means learning to live with people you don't agree with, perhaps people you don't even like. As democracy comes to the Middle East, Muslims have to hold themselves accountable for these types of questions. They have to work hard to develop a culture of tolerance and understanding. Part of this will come with democracy; Arabs have been oppressed for decades and this oppression leads to intolerance. A more open society - a democracy - will lead to more tolerance, but Arab Muslims (and Afghan Muslims) have some soul-searching to do. Nothing is more important than human life, no book nor drawing nor television show.
I expect the leaders of Muslim democracies to make this clear and to punish the offenders. It's fine for them to condemn Terry Jones, but they must condemn violence even more strongly and they must hold those responsible accountable. If they are unwilling to do that, then America must be unwilling to support them.
I'm glad you blogged about this. It's an outrage and also evidence that yes, extremist Islam is indeed a legitimate threat to everyone, including Americans. I agree that Terry Jones is a jackass and i'm assuming that, except for the explicit violence, his brand of Christianity is just as intolerant and ignorant as any fundamentalist belief. And this particular decision was a really bad idea. But why was it a bad idea? Not because it's illegal. Not because it's dangerous in itself. It was a bad idea only because of the likelihood that a few maniacs would riot and KILL other people as a result. If not for that, Jones' decision to burn the quran would be as bad an idea as burning a Dr. Seuss book. Both parties a fraught with intolerance and hate. Only one group, in a rage of delusional religious zeal, is willing to spill the blood of innocent humans. Go to hell, Christianity. Grow up, Islam. And hurry.
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