Many of the deathes occurred in Afghanistan after our good friend Afghan President Hamid Karzai helped things along by highlighting the Florida incident. The dead include United Nations workers. Karzai has been using any opportunity lately to denounce the United States and express sympathy for the Taliban — while insisting that we continue our spending of billions in his country.
Most Afghans were unaware of the incident on March 20th until Karzai made it the focus of a recent speech.
Jones is an example of how anyone can call himself a preacher and the head of a church — even though he seems to have only a handful of followers. He has expressed no regrets: “It was intended to stir the pot; if you don’t shake the boat, everyone will stay in their complacency.”
The fact is that Jones’ hateful act is protected speech in this country. Despite Obama’s support for an international blasphemy resolution, we remain committed to free speech — even speech that others find insulting and sacrilegious. He was roundly denounced in his country and has lost most of the small number of people in his church. Yet, I will not join those blaming him for this violence. It is a mistake to blame unpopular speakers for such mob responses. It is the fault of these murderous extremists. What Jones is responsible for is his own act of hateful desecration. Instead of showing that it is Jones who is the extremist and the symbol of intolerance, these Muslim extremists have played into dreams of anti-Muslims like Jones.
Source: Yahoo
Along with Jones’ rights goes his responsibilities and he is without any doubt or question responsible for those deaths. I would like to see some “rendition” used on him and have him delivered naked to a public square in Kabul with his name on a big sign proclaiming his right to burn any religion’s texts.
Original sentence:
I doubt the pastor didn’t know that this would lead to killing or as he was warned it would in regard to getting our soldiers killed.
Corrected sentence (in upper case lettering):
I doubt the pastor didn’t know that this would lead to killing or MURDER as he was warned it would in regard to getting our soldiers killed.
Cripes, how did that happen?
I doubt the pastor didn’t know that this would lead to killing or as he was warned it would in regard to getting our soldiers killed. I believe the FBI talked with him about this and so I don’t believe his claim. Of course, this is a Florida pastor and they seem notorious for being of low intelligence.
Again, this may have nothing to do with hate. You cannot prove it is hate unless hatred is admitted. And hate is not necessarily a bad thing. It is good to hate many things. Nazism, for example. Pedophilia. Or theft.
And, I would think that many here hate book burning.
Hatred can be very good indeed.
Frankly, I don’t mind burning any kind of filth that promotes the trafficking of women, which is what the Koran does.
It is no surprise to me that leftists in America are for protecting some alleged right to promote trafficking and not upsetting the sensibilities of those who peddle it.
I understand that it is illegal to promote harming a government official. Why is it not illegal to promote trafficking in women who are not serving in government?
Blouise,
The sad part is it cost lives of innocent people.
I don’t disagree as far as the role the law should play in connection with Jones and the important protection of free speech. However, moral responsibility can be much broader than legal responsibility. Jones engaged in his actions knowing, and quite possibly hoping, that violence would likely be the result. No, he didn’t kill anyone, but he shares moral responsibility for the violence that he deliberately incited.
rafflaw
1, April 4, 2011 at 11:25 am
It is the idiotic blind in Florida leading the idiotic blind in Afghanistan.
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Yep … that sums it up nicely.
It is the idiotic blind in Florida leading the idiotic blind in Afghanistan.
“Muslims around the world have protested the burning of a Quran (Koran) by Florida preacher Rev. Terry Jones by killing 20 people and injuries dozens of others.”
If I may offer a slight quibble, I’m not sure it’s fair to say “around the world.” As near as I can tell, the violence and killing are taking place only in Afghanistan. I haven’t heard of Muslims in Jakarta or Michigan or elsewhere rioting and killing over this.
Maybe 40+ years of constant warfare combined with a tribal and relatively uneducated population has more to do with a propensity toward violence than adherence to a particular faith.
personally I would say burning a book is significantly different from killing people.
One is legal free speech and the other is murder. If a group needs to kill people to protest the burning of a sacred book there is something rotten and it isnt in Denmark nor in Florida.
Sharia Law is a totalitarian law of men to keep other men (and women) in fear for their lives so they may be manipulated to do the will of God.
I’ll take burning a book any day of the week. I would guess the Florida Crack er Pastor would probably not kill 20 people if someone burned a bible on the other side of the world. Just sayin.
The “preacher” has a point. He burned a book and that justified killing 20 people?
Frank:Rev Jones has to be praying like hell that there is no God & no after life.
Truer words were never spoken. I have a theory, not a belief but a wish, that there is a hell, and the only people in it are the people who consigned others to it. Of course, then I’d have my own problems…
Jones has absolute protection from criminal prosecution. That’s a First Amendment issue.
But he is not protected from a civil suit for damages by families of the victims. If they can proved that he acted recklessly and with malice, despite warnings by Petraeus, Gates and others — the victims could end up OWNING that church. Just like various African American victims ended up owning the property of a Klan group, recently.
Is there a lawyer willing to file such a lawsuit? I bet Prof. Turley can name many former students who would.
BIL – allow me to play Devil’s advocate for a moment.
The first 5 chapters of the OT were hand written by Moses, transcribing the direct word of Yahweh. At least thats the story told by the fundies. So to them God DID write a book.
Now I would want them to explain why, given a single author, Moses refers to himself in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person at various times. Why there are two different creation stories in Genesis. Why there are 7 distinct lists (and a few partial lists) of commandments he brought down from the mountain. When they get through those I have a couple hundred other questions.
Rev Jones has to be praying like hell that there is no God & no after life.
Saw the crack head on TV this morning….he was packin….looked like a 9…
The Prof says, “even speech that others find insulting and sacrilegious” I would change “even” to “especially”, since the views of the majority usually don’t need defending.
Many comments on a related post seemed to want to blame Jones for murder or incitement, or at least insensitivity to the “offended” Muslim murderers. I have no obligation to avoid offending Muslims, not that I would go out of my way to do so. But if I said something true and offense was taken, so be it.
There are many things that might offend these same Muslims, apart from cartoons of The Prophet: speaking of The Prophet without adding Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH), speaking of Allah without using one of his 99 names (The Merciful, etc.), and the SI Swimsuit Issue.
We should not countenance infringements on our free speech simply because someone might be “offended.” Nor should we be extorted into silence by the threat of violence.
BIL:
Talk about hitting the nail on the head.
“No God, under any name, anywhere, and at any time has ever written a book nor would they need to write a book.”
By in large, what the Prof said.
It’s Jones’ right to burn a Quaran as protected free speech. I don’t care if the did. That is as long as he has no problem with me burning a Bible as that is my right as well.
But civil rights and choices are not the same thing.
The choice of another group of insane zealots to kill a bunch of people totally unconnected to Jones in response is just that – an insane choice made upon the basis of belief – not evidence, reason and logic.
Just like violence often begets more violence, crazy often begets more crazy.
No God, under any name, anywhere, and at any time has ever written a book nor would they need to write a book.
A being with absolute omnipresences and omnipotence would not need a book to make mortal creatures believe as it wants them to believe.
It would simply make it so.
It’s a god. Free from the physical constraints of the universe. A God can, by definition, accomplish what it wants within the physical universe simply by divine will.
Book? Gods do not need books any more than they would need a house or a food processor or a coupon to get a free Brazilian wax. To say a God relies upon a book written by men or a specific humans interpretation of a book written by men to tell other men how this God wants them to live is both staggeringly arrogant on the part of men and egregiously stupid to believe by the very definition of what a God is.
People like preacher jones have this view and a lot of people in the tea party also IMHO:
“simplistic [sɪmˈplɪstɪk]
adj
1. characterized by extreme simplicity; naive
2. oversimplifying complex problems; making unrealistically simple judgments or analyses”
not good