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Creepier Than Thou: Questions Raised About Koran Burning Church

The Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC), headed by Rev. Terry Jones has already triggered violence internationally with its promise this weekend to burn copies of the Koran (Qu’ran) and prompted our military commander in Iraq to speak out that such a hateful act would put the lives of U.S. soldiers in jeopardy. Jones, however, is unmoved and is willing to sacrifice someone’s son or daughter for his publicity stunt. Now, we are learning how really creepy this group is.

The 50-family Gainesville church is headed by Jones and his wife Sylvia. Its “Academy Rulebook” was written in November 2007 by Sylvia Jones. The rulebook restricts every part of the lives of students including cutting off contact with family members. They warn “[f]amily occasions like wedding, funerals or Birthdays are no exception to this rule . . . No phone calls. Exceptions can be made under certain circumstances but only after receiving permission.” Romantic relationships are barred: “there is no need to talk at all, or even flirt!” Students must be weighed repeatedly and are barred from “eating out in restaurants.” Students are told to “wash or shower at least once a day but not more then 2 a day,” and to be sure to cleanse “Mouth, sweat areas, hair, feet hands.”

For members have accused the Jones’ of abuse and using church funds for personal purposes. They appear to be in the furniture selling business, though allegations have been raised about the use of the church for this purpose (here).

Jones, 58, is the author of “Islam Is of the Devil” and models much of his lectures on the movie “Braveheart.”

Source: here.

176 thoughts on “Creepier Than Thou: Questions Raised About Koran Burning Church”

  2. hystar:

    post it all and then we can talk. there are a good many parallels to the bible in a lot of books.

  3. I had to ask myself the question, has that preacher read the Quran before he decided to burn it, or is his information based on what he has heard? I looked at the first two books of the Quran and found a lot of parallels to the Bible. I posted what I had found. http://biblecompare.wordpress.com/

  4. Wall St. op ed by Zuhdi Jasser:

    “I must ask Imam Rauf: For what do you stand–what’s best for Americans overall, or for what you think is best for Islam? What have you said and argued to Muslim-majority nations to address their need for reform? You have said that Islam does not need reform, despite the stoning of women in Muslim countries, death sentences for apostates, and oppression of reformist Muslims and non-Muslims.

    “You now lecture Americans that WTC mosque protests are ‘politically motivated’ and ‘go against the American principle of church and state.’ Yet you ignore the wide global prevalence of far more dangerous theo-political groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and all of its violent and nonviolent offshoots. . . .

    “Imam, tell me if you can look into the eyes of children who lost a parent on 9/11 and convince them that this immodest Islamic center benefits them. How will it in any way aid counterterrorism efforts or keep one American any safer? You willfully ignore what American Muslims most need–an open call for reformation that unravels the bigoted and shoddy framework of political Islam and separates mosque and state. ”

    “Imam Rauf may not appear to the untrained eye to be an Islamist, but by making Ground Zero an Islamic rather than an American issue, and by failing to firmly condemn terrorist groups like Hamas, he shows his true allegiance.

    “Islamists in ‘moderate’ disguise are still Islamists.”

  5. eniobob,

    Thanks for the link … I had forgotten all about that interview … it does make one wonder … however, I believe the party has more to say about that than any individual man and Obama is definitely a Party man.

    He still has two years …

  7. Let’s give credit where credit is due:

    From Media Matters
    TIMELINE: Nine months of the right’s anti-Muslim bigotry
    September 10, 2010 11:36 pm ET
    http://mediamatters.org/research/201009100042

    Cheered on by Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media, conservative activists spent the past year engaged in an anti-Muslim campaign that included efforts to block the planned Islamic center in lower Manhattan and demonize the imam spearheading the project. The bigotry has culminated in a Florida pastor’s now-“suspended” plans to burn Qurans on September 11 — plans that the pastor has explicitly linked to the controversy over the Islamic center.

    December 2009

    NY Times first reports on the Islamic cultural center. The New York Times first reported on the plans to build an Islamic cultural center in an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory building two blocks away from ground zero in a December 8, 2009, article. The Times emphasized the purpose of the center, which, according to project leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, was “to push back against the extremists.” The article partially foreshadowed the controversy, reporting that Joan Brown Campbell, the director of the Chautauqua Institution religion department and “a supporter of Imam Feisal,” “acknowledged the possibility of a backlash from those opposed to a Muslim presence at ground zero.”

    Geller writes first Atlas Shrugs post on the center. That same day in an Atlas Shrugs post, Pamela Geller reacted to the Times’ article, writing: “I don’t know what is more grotesque…jihad or the NY Times preening of it. The New York Times yet again misrepresents, obfuscates, and confuses infidels and kaffirs about Islam.” In her post, Geller mostly discussed Sufism, the branch of Islam that Rauf and his followers belong to.

    Ingraham tells Daisy Khan, “I like what you’re trying to do.” As noted by Salon.com’s Justin Elliot, who created a timeline of the Islamic Center controversy in mid-August, the first known appearance of the story on Fox News occurred on December 21, 2009, when Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham, while filling in for Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor, hosted Daisy Khan, Rauf’s wife and executive director of the project. During the interview, Ingraham criticized Rauf’s statement that “it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima.” She later added: “But I like what you’re trying to do, and Ms. Khan, we appreciate it.” Ingraham also stated during the interview, “I can’t find many people who really have a problem” with the Islamic center, and told Kahn it’s “fantastic” that “your group takes a moderate approach to Americanizing people, assimilating people, which I applaud.”

    Geller attacks Islamic center as “Islamic domination and expansionism.” In a December 21, 2009, post titled, “Mosque at Ground Zero: Adding Insult to Agony,” Geller called the center a “giant victory lap” and wrote: “Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn’t dream of such an insult. It’s a stab in eye of America. What’s wrong with these people? Have they no heart? No soul?” Geller also claimed of the project: “This is Islamic domination and expansionism. The location is no accident.”

    *****
    January 2010-April 2010

    The story goes into hiding. Following Geller’s December 21, 2009, post, the story fell from public view. Even Geller did not post on the subject again until May 6, 2010. During this period, Fox News continued its long-standing campaign of anti-Muslim rhetoric, smearing individual Muslims as “terrorists,” calling for racial profiling, and fearmongering about Islam in general.

    *****
    May 2010

    Geller resumes attack on Islamic center. Following a unanimous resolution by the New York Community Board 1 to express support for the project, Geller brought the story back into public view with a post titled, “Monster Mosque Pushes Ahead in Shadow of World Trade Center Islamic Death and Destruction.” In the post, Geller framed the issue as one of “sensitivity” and claimed the project is a “victory lap,” an “insult,” and a “stab in the eye of America”:

    One might think that the Muslim community might be capable of some sensitivity, considering what a manically sensitive bunch they are about everything. Every time there is a jihad attack (which is happening with increasing frequency), they start wailing on us infidels about Muslim sensitivities and anticipatory and imaginary affronts and insults.

    What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center buildings brought down by Islamic attack?

    Worse still, the design is a mockery of the World Trade Center building design. Islamic jihad took down those buildings when they attacked, destroyed and murdered 3,000 people in an act of conquest and Islamic supremacism. What better way to mark your territory than to plant a giant mosque on the still-barren land of the World Trade Center? Sort of a giant victory lap. Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn’t dream of such an insult. It’s a stab in eye of America. What’s wrong with these people? Have they no heart? No soul?

    As of September 10, Geller has written 205 blog posts categorized as “Mosque at Ground Zero: Takbir!”

    New York Post: “Mosque Madness at Ground Zero.” As Elliott noted in the Salon.com timeline, the New York Post ran a May 6 article referring to the Islamic center as the “‘WTC’ mosque.” The Post’s Andrea Peyser also wrote a column in May titled, “Mosque Madness at Ground Zero,” quoting Geller. Elliott stated:
    Lots of opinion makers on the right read the Post, so it’s not surprising that, starting that very day, the mosque story spread through the conservative — and then mainstream — media like fire through dry grass. Geller appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show. The Washington Examiner ran an outraged column about honoring the 9/11 dead. So did Investor’s Business Daily. Smelling blood, the Post assigned news reporters to cover the ins and outs of the Cordoba House development daily. Fox News, the Post’s television sibling, went all out.

    Islamic Center of Northeast Florida was firebombed. Jacksonville, Florida’s, First Coast News reported that on May 10, a man attempted to firebomb the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida “shortly before evening prayers.” The Florida Times-Union later reported that “[a]uthorities found remnants of a crude pipe bomb in the explosion” and that “at the time of the blast about 60 people were inside.” The article quoted FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Jim Casey as discussing the potential destruction and death the blast could have caused were it not for “the strength of the mosque building.” The article also reported that “law enforcement officials” were surprised that “they had not gotten nearly as many calls as they expected” regarding the identity of the bomber after they released security video of the man.

    Fox & Friends runs first of many segments on the center, hosting Rauf and 9-11 firefighter. On May 11, Fox & Friends ran the first Fox news segment following Ingraham’s December 2009 interview with Khan. Doocy introduced the story by asking if the plans to build the center were a “great insult.” The following segment featured guests Imam Rauf and Tim Brown, a firefighter who responded to the attacks on 9-11. Brown said he didn’t “understand the need to put it there,” but also said he and Rauf had a “nice relationship,” were “learning from each other,” and that Rauf was an example of a “wonderful Muslim.” Rauf said: “First of all, this is not a mosque; this is a community center … for the whole community” and said he would “absolutely” allow members of other faiths. Rauf also said he understood Brown’s sentiments.

    Geller focuses attacks on Rauf. In a May 15 post, Geller began the attacks on the project’s leader, Imam Rauf, quoting from a Pajamas Media post by Alyssa Lappen on “[e]verything there is to know about Faisal Abdul Rauf, the wolf in sheep’s clothing behind the planned lower Manhattan mega-mosque.”
    Geller appears on Fox News’ Huckabee. On the May 15 edition of his Fox News show, Mike Huckabee hosted Geller to discuss the Islamic community center project. Geller called the Islamic center an “outrage and an insult,” and said it was “humiliating to the families and to all Americans.”

    Geller appears on Fox & Friends. Fox News hosted Geller on the May 27 edition of Fox & Friends, during which Geller defended her billboard advertisements, which provide information on how to “Leav[e] Islam.” She said they represented religious freedom and again criticized the Park51 project as “stab[bing] Americans in the eye.”

    Radio host Michael Berry: “I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up.” On the May 28 edition of his radio show, Michael Berry said that “you can’t build a mosque at the site of 9/11.” After a caller asked Berry why you couldn’t build a mosque at the site of 9-11, Berry responded: “No, you can’t. And I’ll tell you this: If you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up. … I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up. And I mean that.” Berry subsequently apologized for the remarks.

    **********

    I sure would like to find out more about Pamela Geller!

  10. Blouise,

    If we’re going to get what we both want it’s going to take a lot of work from all of us, but it would be nice if President Obama shouldered more of the load… I think he will have to if he wants to be re-elected.

    Blouise said:

    “I’m not interested in wannabes … I want willbes and canbes and arebes”

    I think of in terms of ‘What’s next?’ – I try not to think about what just happened or what to do in 10 years and focus on what I can do right now to work towards achieving my goals.

    And with that in mind, I’ve got other things I need to be doing – goodnight all.

  11. Slarti,

    I will support him because he saved the American Auto industry and through that action, our manufacturing base. I wish he had been as strong and as determined in other areas.

    I’m not interested in wannabes … I want willbes and canbes and arebes

  12. Slarti,

    I understand what you are saying but make no mistake, when persons such as my husband feel betrayed, Obama has some real work to do.

  13. From the above article:

    “Gerald Bingham, 67, of Churchill, Tenn., who lost his son, Mark, in the crash, said it meant a lot to him to have both Obama and Bush there. He said it was important that people remember the victims and support efforts to build the memorial.

    “This is a story that needs to be told,” Bingham said. “It’s something we can all take a lesson from what they did on that plane.”

    Asked about the controversies over construction of a mosque near ground zero in New York City, and over a Florida pastor’s now-canceled plans to burn copies of the Quran to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary, Bingham said he had no time to worry about such things.

    “We’re trying to move forward here,” he said.”

  16. lottakatz and Blouise,

    I understand where both of you are coming from (and I even agree about feeling betrayed on several issues), but I think that if you believe in liberal goals and policies then supporting President Obama and the Democrats is the only option in the short term. You want the public option? So do I. Do you think that we have a better chance of getting it if the Republicans take over the House, the Senate, or the Presidency in the next 6 years? President Obama got a health insurance reform bill passed – with democratic majorities in both houses additional work could be done to make this more successful (like passing a bill creating a public option). Unfortunately we haven’t advanced to single payer (or socialized medicine) yet, but President Obama and the Democrats have taken a step in the right direction and until you convince me that there is a better path towards that goal (and other progressive aims) I’m going to continue to support President Obama and the Democrats to the best of my ability.

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