Florida’s the Rev. Terry Jones, of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, is moving ahead with his “International Burn-a-Quran Day,” despite warnings from Afghanistan’s U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus that throwing a bunch of Islam’s sacred books on the flames will only hurt relations. Jones’s church is the same one that was behind the “No Homo Mayor” signs, who won the city’s mayoral election — and knows this merry band of press baiters quite well.
On the one hand you’ve got Jones & Co. exercising their First Amendment rights, which despite all you naysayers, is the sort of activity the First Amendment was in fact created to allow. On the other hand Gainesville officials denied Jones a permit to have an open fire, which is required to burn anything out in the open, which might just be a sly way to infringe on his First Amendment rights. In which case, well, shame on them.
Chuck
The only difference between this guy and John Boner is that the latter is about to become Speaker of the US House. Lest we forget Boner’s objection to the Matthew Shepherd Act being that gay bashing should be protected as freedom of speech.
nineinchnail
Religion is the root of all evil.
7
@Chuck: If that’s the case, then Boner bashing should also…
Damn it.
But yeah, this guy’s a clown. His ‘church’ is a cult. Last year they came into the University yelling at Muslim students saying that they’re all going to hell. One woman said that she had Muslim friends, and she didn’t hate Muslims, God did.
It’s a bootleg WBC.
Queer Supremacist
Why are they burning the Koran? They’d make great Muslims. They’re both homophobic, anti-semitic fascistic goy heretics.
The Koran SHOULD be burned along with the Christian Bible. Yes, I’m for book burning, depending on the books you burn. If you own a book, you should be allowed to do anything you want with it that does not harm others. If flag burning is protected speech, then book burning, unless it is by government coercion, which is why it was wrong for the Nazis to do it, should be as well.
And burning people like this at the stake should also be legal.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Same as the inbred band of traveling band of scumbags from Westboro Baptist…….if these douchebags were simply ignored instead of giving them just what they crave, publicity they would simply go away………
Lonster
I’m grateful for nut jobs like Rev. Jones, because they illustrate how out of touch organized religion is from reality. The more exreme people like him, Jerry Falwell, and people like him are, the more the general pubic sees their hatefulness for what it is.
Dallas David
If Satan is the Father of All Evil, and
If God created Satan, then
God is the Grandfather of All Evil.
—–
Another pithy observation:
—–
God is an atheist.
To become more like God,
I became an atheist.
—
That’s about all the religious devotion this idiot evokes.
Joe
@Queer Supremacist: you’re all for book burnings depending on the books? Do YOU get to decide which books should be burned and which shouldn’t? Try reading some books instead (and that would be my advice to Jones and his crew too)
Kieran
I don’t know I can’t picture Jesus burning something out of spite. The German poet Heinrich Heine once wrote, “Where they burn books, there eventually they will also burn humans.”
Steve
Technically, he has the right to burn a book. The supreme court has said that symbolic burning of objects is an act of free speech. A book is only an object. If he owns it, he may dispose of it in any manner of his choosing.
However, having the right to do something does not mean that it is the right thing to do. Burning the Quran is clearly not very smart. The most likely result is that some Muslims will react violently, some property will be damaged, and some people may be killed.
If there is any justice in the world, some young Muslims will decide to bomb and burn the “Church” that this nut case operates.
We can only pray that the violence will not go farther than that.
Dallas David
I presume somebody (in the USA) has already considered burning 10 Bibles for every Koran this guy torches. I assume they have a good reason for not doing this, but then again, maybe nobody has had this idea.
Unless someone can think of a good idea for not matching this lunatic’s Koran-burning spree 10-for-1, I’d be willing to do my part. I’ve been collecting a few Gideon Bibles that I’d be glad to get rid of . . .
Maybe it’s time for a Queerty Bible-burning, complete with Torch Songs. Or maybe just run a few through a paper shredder, then donate the remains to a paper recycler, or use as packing material, or something.
Ya, I’ve got 10 useless bibles I can donate to the cause . . .
JohnnyTrue
This guy is an attention seeking douche bag – that I wish could be completely ignored, but that ain’t gonna happen.
I had no idea he was the same one that attacked the now Mayor of Gainesville – makes sense.
Sorry to quibble though about the Nazi book burning – they were mostly state sponsored book burnings – but the young kids doing it were hardly coerced. They eagerly threw those books on an open fire – that is what is so disturbing about that awful chapter in human history. As Kieran quoted Heine – burn a book they’ll go down a slippery bloody path.
It’s the immense power of propaganda on the ignorant and/or willing.
Fox News and the tea party and other right wingers are doing a helluva job on the public right now.
Effectively repeat that Obama is Muslim enough times – they’ll believe it, Repeat that all gays/Muslims/French are monsters – they’ll believe it, Repeat that the world is flat and they’ll start believing that too.
B
QUEERTY: “On the one hand you’ve got Jones & Co. exercising their First Amendment rights, which despite all you naysayers, is the sort of activity the First Amendment was in fact created to allow.”
Not really – the First Amendment wasn’t created for that reason. The free speech part of it was to prevent the state from squashing well-thought-out points of view that some politician didn’t like. The “separation of church and state” part was put in so that people wouldn’t be coerced into either changing their religious beliefs or moving somewhere else when someone with a different religion got elected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_persecution#Persecution_for_political_reasons has some examples of the issues in the past (and then of course there was the 30 Years War – the obvious desire to avoid repeating it here).
The cost of allowing interesting but unpopular ideas to be discussed and the cost of keeping church and state separate are the nuts we allow to run around loose, spouting off to their hearts’ content and sometimes acting like 5 year old brats (of which Terry Jones is a prime example).
Queer Supremacist
@B: So it protects oppression of religion. But there is no amendment protecting citizens from oppression by religion. Of course, there’s always the Second Amendment for that.
@Joe: I take plenty of joy in the written word. Do newspapers and blogs count or does it have to be printed on dead trees and bound with glue?
As for burning books, would we be worse off if no copies of some crappy piece of chick lit survived the ages? We’re not talking about the Library of Alexandria here.
I’m not spending my scarce currency on that piece of hate literature nor will I expend the effort to waste a perfectly good match on it or a Christian bible, or any book I don’t like. I just won’t read it. But if you own a book, it is your right to do with it as you please as long as you don’t hurt others. That includes setting it ablaze. Right or wrong, this is not censorship.
@Steve: Burning the Quran is clearly not very smart. The most likely result is that some Muslims will react violently, some property will be damaged, and some people may be killed.
In other news, water is wet, shit stinks, and if this happened, it would prove what Islam does to people.
Forgive me for not caring about the feelings of bigots. And since these jokers are the kissin’ cousins of Muslim hatemongers, I won’t give two shits if Muslims (or anyone else) do something awful to them. I’d support Muslims’ war on Christians if they didn’t also hate Jews.
B
The books will not be burned and it seems the NYC mosque is going to be in a different location. Details are at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/07/national/a083113D29.DTL
B
No. 14 · Queer Supremacist wrote, “@B: So it protects oppression of religion. But there is no amendment protecting citizens from oppression by religion. Of course, there’s always the Second Amendment for that.”
What are you talking about? Religions have no ability to oppress you unless the state favors them in some way. If they try to literally drag you into church kicking and screaming, you can charge them with assault. If they try to get you fired or thrown out of your home, there are other laws that apply. Also, atheism counts as a religious belief under the First Amendment, so they can’t coerce you to have some religion.
If they stand on the street corner pointing to you and calling you a “sinner”, there really isn’t much you can do about it beyond using your first amendment rights by extending the middle finger of your hand in a traditional gesture. But don’t worry. Lot’s of people will laugh at them, not you.
B
Re No 15: the San Francisco Chronicle just issued a correction. It seems that Rev. Terry Jones announced that the mosque would be built elsewhere but Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf claims there have been no negotiations on that.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/07/national/a083113D29.DTL&tsp=1 contains the update (its the same URL I cited in No 15, but the Chronicle is updating the content of it as more information comes in – it is a “breaking news” article subject to revision).
Queer Supremacist
@B: Religions have no ability to oppress you? Tell that to the victims of ex-gay concentration camps (yeah, I made that comparison).
B
No. 18 · Queer Supremacist wrote, “@B: Religions have no ability to oppress you? Tell that to the victims of ex-gay concentration camps”
While deluded parents can sign children up for a “change your sexual orientation program” and a person can enter one voluntarily, if a church tries to drag you into one, the people responsible will have committed a serious crime – kidnapping – and can expect to spend a long time in prison.
Queer Supremacist
@B: So their parents are kapos. Lovely. It’s not as though I expected any more from breeder goyim.
Churches, synagogues, and mosques that actively engage in anti-gay activity have the blood of gays on their hands, and there is no legal way to stop them. There needs to be a way to do that without infringing on the First Amendment.
Burn the Koran and the Christian Bible in the name of Freedom!
This whole brouhaha is in stark contrast to that other Terry Jones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpPaBwZoQkg
B
No. 20 · Queer Supremacist wrote, “@B: So their parents are kapos. Lovely.”
Some kids are stuck with bad parents, whether physically abusive or ones with other issues. It’s too bad and sometimes the state manages to intervene, but someone has to report the abuse and often that just doesn’t happen.
As to, “Churches, synagogues, and mosques that actively engage in anti-gay activity have the blood of gays on their hands, and there is no legal way to stop them. There needs to be a way to do that without infringing on the First Amendment,” well, there is if the churches etc. go too far. Read http://www.theness.com/the-christian-science-holocaust/ for an example (Christian Science beliefs include avoiding medical care and praying instead, and some practitioners have ended up in criminal court when this resulted in the death or severe injury to a child). In particular the article just cited states, “The supreme court ruled over a half a century ago that the government could override the parent’s religious freedom in order to enforce child-protection laws. In short, the court ruled parents can become martyrs themselves but this does not allow them to make martyrs of their children before they reach the age of full legal discretion (Prince vs. MA 321 US 158, 170 1944, a case of a Jehovah’s Witness child). In the case of Christian Scientists, though, since they don’t consult doctors, the state is usually not aware of the emergency until the child dies (Asser and Swan, 1998).”
A church can preach the homosexuality is sinful, but if they try some wacky, dangerous treatment to “cure” it, they can be brought up on charges of child abuse. But someone has to report it – the state generally doesn’t step in when it isn’t clear that there is a problem. If you want to do something about it, make sure that kids caught in this situation have someone they can talk to who can help them get the state to protect them.
S
@JohnnyTrue:
“Effectively repeat that Obama is Muslim enough times – they’ll believe it, Repeat that all gays/Muslims/French are monsters – they’ll believe it, Repeat that the world is flat and they’ll start believing that too.”
JohnnyTrue, have you forgotten that fundamentalist “Christians” (I place the word in quotes because I don’t think any of them understands what it means) believe there was a man named Jonah who lived for three days and three nights in the belly of a “great fish” ? Or that a man named Noah built a ship large enough to hold a pair of every species on the earth?
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Finious
Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” (German: “Das war Vorspiel nur. Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.”)
– Heinrich Heine, Almansor (1821)
Burning books and burning people are connected because both stem from a desire to eliminate ideas that are a threat to the some group or ideology. Heinrich Heine recognized that such a connection could exist and perceived that once people could be persuaded to burn books, then at least some of them could be persuaded to take the further step of burning those responsible for the creation of those books. Perhaps they could even burn all those connected in any way with the degenerate ideas in these books which, if allowed to propagate, might threaten the Christianity itself.
Most people probably don’t think about or see these connections, but they must recognize that something sinister is going on when books are burned. Perhaps it’s simply that such an action reminds people of Nazi Germany.
Jeffree
@Finious: The pastor already burned the Qu’ran. But you’re right that it’s the suppression of ideas.
Same guy would be fighting mad if someone tried to burn a Bible.