I have been hesitant to write about the impending plans by a Florida fundamentalist pastor (I'm not sure I really want to dignify this man with such a title) to burn copies of the Koran (Quran) on Saturday. Saturday is, by the way, the 9th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon.
First of all, burning books of any kind is simply bad taste. Second, at a time when the United States has troops engaged in combat in one Muslim country, and thousands more still present in a supporting role in another, such antics, as General David Petraeus noted, puts troops in danger -- but then again so do statements by politicians like Newt Gingrich and preachers like Franklin Graham. If you want to bring these wars to a successful close, incendiary language about the people living in these war zones doesn't help the cause.
I think it's clear that this guy has few supporters. He's the anti-Muslim equivalent of Topeka's Fred Phelps, and as such he seems to be an embarrassment even to the most Islamaphobic fundamentalists.
So, instead of burning Korans, Bibles, or any other book, maybe we could actually do some reading of them to see what is found there! We might not like everything we read in the Koran, but I guarantee that you won't like everything you read in the Bible.
Mr. Jones, just put the light out and go away, would you please!
