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Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who sparked up controversy last year with his announcement to burn Korans has his name once again in his news. Just a few weeks ago with little publicity or media coverage Jones and his tiny Florida church put the Koran “on trial”. As a result of this “trial” they burnt a copy for being “guilty of crimes against humanity”.
Most people in American went on not caring. Very few people paid any attention to it. Sadly the same can not be said for the rest of the world. During the last 3 days there have been large protests near Kabul, Afghanistan. As a result of these protests there have been at least 20 death so far. The majority of the deaths are U.N. workers and all are completely unrelated to the situation.
How can this kind of insanity happen? How can 20 people be dead because of the actions of one rogue foolish pastor in Florida? Is he to blame? Is the blood on his hands?
To be entirely clear I am absolutely no fan of Terry Jones but I don’t think he is to blame for these deaths. In the United States we are free to express ourselves however we chose, even if many people do it to express their ignorance. There have been countless bibles burnt in protest, for artistic purposes, and since they appear in nearly every hotel room, many just for “fun”. Terry Jones did not commit a crime, he did absolutely nothing wrong by law, and a case could hardly be made that what he did was immoral.
These people provided Terry Jones exactly what he was asking for, a violent reaction. His point has been proven. He has been able to show exactly what he was trying to tell the world, that Muslims would react violently and ignorantly to his actions. It cost 20 innocent people their lives but his point has been shown.
It’s somewhat unfortunate that this story comes at a time when the media is already flooded with headline news. Chances are this story will go mostly unmentioned. These 20 people died because of religious ignorance but that message will sadly not get across.
What do I think is to blame? I think it should be obvious sadly, it’s the religion. Not all Muslims react with outrage, not all react in protest or violence, but the fact that some did shows exactly what Terry Jones was trying to show. Especially in a place like Afghanistan, where education is extremely poor, the people reacted in an archaic and ignorant way, because they believe that is what they should do for their religion. They killed 20 people cruelly because of the burnt pages of their “sacred” text. The fact that these people are able to justify it to themselves in such a way is, I feel, what the real crime is in this situation.
I jog past Terry Jones (out walking usually with his two sons I believe and two dogs) a couple times a month. Anyone...
Worth a read.