From the New York Times via The Washington Independent: [Lal Mohammad] Ahmadzai, the [Afghan National Police] spokesman, said the demonstrators were angry about the burning of the Koran at the church of Pastor Terry Jones on Mar. 20. Mr. Jones had caused an international uproar by threatening to burn the Koran last year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and demonstrations at the time led to deaths throughout Afghanistan, but on a small scale. Mr. Jones subsequently had publicly promised not to burn a Koran, but then presided over a mock trial and the burning of the Koran at his small fringe church in Gainesville, Fla.
Fran Ingram, an assistant at the Dove World Outreach Center, in Gainesville, Fla., said that the church had burned the Koran after a ceremony on March 20. “We put the Koran on trial and we did burn it,” she said. Ms. Ingram said she and other church members were no more concerned about their safety than before the burning and the killings of the United Nations workers in Afghanistan. “We have a huge stack of death threats,” she said. “We take precautions. I have a handgun. A lot of us have concealed weapons permits. We’re a small church and we don’t have money to hire security.”
COMMENT: Putting another religion's holy book on trial, and then burning it?: Stupid. As in so stupid that it's hard to know where to begin with any commentary. And it has resulted in the attack on a United Nations headquarters in Afghanistan with twelve UN staffers killed. Why? Because when one set of loonie extremists commit violence upon the sacred text of another religion, the loonie extremists in that group will respond in kind.
Everyone told Pastor Jones last September that his threat to burn the Qur'an would ratchet up violence and attacks on foreigners in the Middle East, especially Americans and American troops. We THOUGHT Jones got it. Instead he apparently was biding his time until he could follow through on his hateful, un-Christian plan. The blood of the innocent are on his hands. What a freaking moron!
This is BBC's footage of the attack on the UN in Afghanistan. I apologize for the overly-dramatic music. You might want to turn the sound off to watch.
6 comments:
So many innocent people hurt by extremist hatred, all in the name of the God of Love. What some 'church' people do, makes me wish the word 'church' was a specific trademark so not just any fringe crowd could use it.
Jones should go to a muslim country and get what he deserves.
Those poor innocent UN staff that got killed because of this coward.
Ignorance and hatred of other humans who "are not like us" weakens my soul, momentarily. My sadness at such hatred still prevalent,so many thousands of years later-for what? Still more deaths of innocent HUMANS in this world, mainly for "Believe and be only like "us" or we will destroy you??" I will not hate,only love and really try to accept everyone who thinks to hate me just for me, like I learned from my great grandmother and a God who has to be shaking the omnificent head in some wonder at why....
I am guessing that the members of Jone's church have not read their own 'bible'. Every bit of anger, and hatred and revenge they found in the Quran can be found in our 'christian' bible. How many people were killed in G-d's name when the people of Israel were trying to survive. How many times did G-d let the Jewish people become enslaved and trampled upon. Our biblical histories for Muslims and 'Christianity' is from the same words of Abraham.
I wonder if the Religious leadership have declared a Jehad on Mr Jones.
Reminds me of a story told by a Professor of Theology; Some Muslim student came pounding on his door complaining about other students who were being disrespectful of the christian bible by stacking them on the sidewalk. "How could they do this to their bible, they asked?"
Obviously, we hold the words of our bible in great respect but we do not give it the same reverence that the Quran is given by Muslims.
Great comment, Anonymous. Please sign a name... any name... at the bottom of your comment next time. And do come back and visit.
I agree Phoebe. If only there were a trademark on "church", we could more easily distance ourselves... and prosecute... lunatics like Pastor Jones.
Interesting points, Kay and Sarah. I just can't fathom why anyone would burn the holy book of another religion, save for the fact that they are a lunatic and are hiding behind the "freedom of religion" clause and claiming to be Christian.
And yes, the God of Abraham IS the God of Ibrahim! We all come from the same root.
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