Church rebuffs military concerns on Quran burning
Church rebuffs military concerns on Quran burning
By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer Mitch Stacy, Associated Press Writer – 10 mins ago GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A Christian minister said Tuesday that he will go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran this weekend to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite a warning from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops. Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center said he understands Gen. David Petraeus' concerns, but plans to go forward with the burning this Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks. He left the door open to change his mind, however, saying that he is still praying about his decision. Petraeus warned Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence." Jones told the AP in a phone interview that he is also concerned but wonders how many times the U.S. can back down. "We think it's time to turn the tables, and instead of possibly blaming us for what could happen, we put the blame where it belongs — on the people who would do it," he said. "And maybe instead of addressing us, we should address radical Islam and send a very clear warning that they are not to retaliate in any form." Jones, who runs the small, evangelical Christian church with an anti-Islam philosophy, says he has received more than 100 death threats and has started wearing a .40-caliber pistol strapped to his hip. The threats started not long after the 58-year-old minister proclaimed in July that he would stage "International Burn a Quran Day." Supporters have been mailing copies of the Islamic holy text to his Dove World Outreach Center to be incinerated in a bonfire that evening. The fire department has denied Jones a required burn permit for Sept. 11, but he has vowed to go ahead with his event. He said lawyers have told him his right to burn the Quran is protected by the First Amendment whether he's got permission from the city or not. Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive. In this progressive north Florida town of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus, the lanky preacher with the bushy white mustache is mostly seen as a fringe character who doesn't deserve the attention he's getting. Still, at least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in Gainesville have mobilized to plan inclusive events — some will read from the Quran at their own weekend services — to counter what Jones is doing. A student group is organizing a protest across the street from the church Saturday. The Vatican newspaper on Tuesday published an article in which Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore, Pakistan, criticized Jones' plan. "No one burns the Quran," read the headline in Tuesday's L'Osservatore Romano. Jones, who has about 50 followers, gained some local notoriety last year when he posted signs in front of his small church proclaiming "Islam is of the Devil." But his Quran-burning scheme, after it caught fire on the Internet, brought rebukes from Muslim nations and an avalanche of media interview requests just as an emotional debate was taking shape over the proposed Islamic center near the Ground Zero site in New York. The Quran, according to Jones, is "evil" because it espouses something other than the Christian biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims. "It's hard for people to believe, but we actually feel this is a message that we have been called to bring forth," he said last week. "And because of that, we do not feel like we can back down." FBI agents have visited to talk about their concerns for Jones' safety, as multiple Facebook pages with thousands of members have popped up hailing him as either a hero or a dangerous pariah. His plan has drawn formal condemnation from the world's pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution of learning, Al-Azhar University in Egypt, whose Supreme Council accused the church of stirring up hate and discrimination and called on other American churches speak out against it. Last month, Indonesian Muslims demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, threatening violence if Jones goes through with it. "Whenever there's a perception that America is somehow anti-Muslim, that harms our image and interests around the Islamic world," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Muslim civil rights group that has worked to discredit Jones and counter his message. ___ Associated Press Writer Kimberly Dozier in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100907/.../quran_burning Oh FLOLrida! |
Dude, this idiot is literally an hour away from me in Gainesville (home of the Florida Gators). I'm thinking about going down and rile up the Black Panthers.
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IMO, the US government should release a statement saying that they in no way support the actions of these people, along with a list of their names and addresses, and any other pertinent information. That way, if the extremists are pissed about it, they can properly direct their anger.
Also, I think 4chan needs to host bible burning parties all over the country at the same time. |
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I was kinda thinking of it as a "taste of your own medicine" sort of thing but I think the people we're working with are too stupid even for that to work. |
And that's where the problem lies. It's like they perpetuate their own intolerance towards each other. I vote we just round all of them up, send them to a Guantanamo bay type arena, put a nice Colosseum-type structure like back in the Roman days and let them fight to the death. Maybe let out a tiger/lion if people aren't being entertained enough and of course, put it all on Pay-Per-View.
I'd much rather pay $60 for 2-3 hours of a holy-war arena style than to watch UFC 1xx |
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That would be good. Maybe let them choose from an assortment of materials in a survivor type of setup? It'd be great television, much better than hearing them complain about each other and lighting books on fire like homos.
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You guys have found a way to articulate my feelings on this matter very well.
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<3 kj
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From what I've been hearing about this guy, though, is he's pretty much a pastor for a fringe group with a very small number of followers. It's good that he does not speak for that entire area. However, he should be thoroughly be bitchslapped.
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What I don't understand is why Christians as a whole don't call out people like this and the Westboro asshats and such. They make the group look bad. Maybe they do call them out and I'm just missing it.
If I were a Christian I definitely wouldn't want to be associated with these morons. |
They don't formally congregate and, as a major group, denounce them. They do as individuals though.
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...*sigh*
:( |
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Like I said, if I have some free time Saturday i'll be going down there and taking pictures, maybe burn a couple Bibles and get on the news or something. Gainesville as a city couldn't get any more redneck/white-trash hickville, so this going on down there doesn't really surprise me any. |
You might want to bring friends/law enforcement if you're going to burn bibles in the south.
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This is exactly why I don't mess with religion. There is to much left to interpretation. The Quran is nothing more then Islam's bible, just like Allah is nothing more then their God. Essentially, this idiot is going to be burning a bible, which almost makes his entire idea, invalid.
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Problem is, I only have a few like-minded friends and the ones who agree on this particular issue aren't motivated enough to do anything about it, they'd rather sit around and smoke weed. But the ones who actually have drive and passion about everything, are the dipshit fringe who have to make their opinions heard.
I can't believe how much news media this guy has been getting. I remember L&T interviewing this guy over a month ago when he first announced what he was going to do and nothing really ran with it, I guess there's something around 9/11 every year that gets played out. Is it wrong to hope for violence to happen against this guy? |
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Gotta love the shitty proof-reading, or lack thereof. Impinge on people's rights? |
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