WE ARE BETTER THAN OUR WORST IDIOTS

The title of this post would be my message to the world in anticipation of the Quran burning scheduled by the "Reverend" Terry Jones this coming Saturday in Gainesville, Florida. (The link to the Yahoo! news story is here.)

There are so many levels of wrongness and stupidity to what this evangelical minister wants to do. I know there are many Americans who are, like me, repulsed by this publicity stunt. But there are also too many people who call themselves proud Americans who think that burning a religious text is a good idea, a form of protest, a way to "stand up" to the terrorists and "Islamo-fascists" who attacked us on 9/11. With anti-Muslim bigotry on the rise (many of the flames being fanned by the so-called Tea Partiers, who with each passing day look less and less like a legitimate independent political movement and more and more like bigoted, fringe arch-conservatives with an axe to grind) how is there going to be any progress made towards healing the wounds of 9/11? Toward putting the occupation of Iraq behind us? Towards finally ending the conflict in Afghanistan?

I don't want to be one of those bloggers who draws too much attention to this crackpot, because attention is clearly something he craves while faith and Christian values are only things he pays lip service to, but when something makes me angry inside and threatens to break my heart--and this story does--I have to say something about it, speak out against it and point out the idiocy of it. Just like any country where Islam is the predominate faith is better than the idiots who are members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, we are a better country than the one that Terry Jones claims to represent.

I just hope the rest of the world realizes this fact so that we don't have many more "9/11"'s to deal with very soon.

Finally, a quote, to all those who think this Farhenheit 451 stunt is just harmless theater:

"Oh my People...give weight and measure with fairness; purloin not other men's goods; and perpetrate not injustice on the Earth with corrupt practices."

That's just one of the many wise things you can learn in the Quran. Let it burn, let it burn.

Peace...