Florida Pastor Presides Over Koran Burning
When we last met Florida Pastor Terry Jones he had placed himself at the center of a week-long media frenzy after first threatening to burn a Koran on September 11th, 2010, and then withdrawing that threat under what can only be described as very odd circumstances. This past weekend, with far less media attention, Jones and his Florida church burned a Koran after placing the book on “trial”:
The controversial Florida pastor who halted plans to burn a Quran on the 9/11 anniversary last year oversaw the burning of the Islamic holy book on Sunday after it was found “guilty” during a “trial” at his church.
“We had a court process,” said Pastor Terry Jones, who acted as judge, in a phone interview. “We tried to set it up as fair as possible, which you can imagine, of course, is very difficult.”
(…)
Jones considered the “International Judge the Quran Day” to be a fairer way of addressing the Islamic holy book, and denied breaking earlier promises not to burn a Quran.
If the jury had reached a different conclusion, Jones said he would have issued an apology for his accusations that the Quran promotes violence.
“We still don’t feel that we broke our word — that was in relationship to International Burn a Quran Day,” he said, referring to his previous plan to burn a pile of Qurans on the 9/11 anniversary to protest plans for an Islamic community center near Ground Zero. “We would not establish another International Burn a Quran Day.”
The President of Pakistan, where there were widespread protests last year during the run-up to Jones’s aborted Koran burning, has already condemned the act:
(Reuters) – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday denounced the burning of Islam’s holy book by a pastor, saying it was serious setback to efforts to promote harmony in the world.
The Christian preacher Terry Jones, who after international condemnation last year canceled a plan to burn copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, supervised the burning of the book in front of a crowd of about 50 people at an obscure church in Florida on Sunday, according to his website.
“I, at the outset strongly condemn, on behalf of the people of Pakistan and on my own behalf, the deliberate desecration of the Holy Koran by a fanatic in Florida,” Zardari said at the beginning of his annual address to the parliament.
“It is a serious setback to efforts at promoting harmony among civilized community through out the world,” he said urging the United Nations to address the matter for the sake of harmony and peace in the world.
I’ll be interested in knowing what Jones thinks he accomplished with his act of bigotry and destruction.
Refresh my memory for me, where does the President of Pakistan stand on the subject of burning the US flag?
“This past weekend, with far less media attention, Jones and his Florida church burned a Koran after placing the book on “trial””
Did the Koran receive counsel of its choosing? If it was unable to pay for counsel, was one provided for it? Did it have the opportunity to request a jury of its peers?
Inquiring minds want to know.
But if a Muslim burns a Bible then the Right Wing would go apoplectic…
“…Gabriel is usually thought of as God’s messenger, explaining divine meanings to selected human beings. In the New Testament it is Gabriel who explains to Mary that she is to bear Jesus, and in Mohammedan legends, it is Gabriel who takes Mohammed to Heaven and dictates the Koran to him.” Azimov’s Guide to the Bible, Vol. 1, The Old Testament, p. 611.
How Mr. T Jones and his lackeys can conduct a kangaroo court to adjudicate the work of an archangel is beyond me.
P.T. McG. asks; “…where does the President of Pakistan stand on the subject of burning the US flag?”
Maybe he read Texas v Johnson.
http://www.esquilax.com/flag/texasvjohnson.html
The fact that a nimrod like Terry Jones can give the Islamists heartburn says more about them than it does about America. I can’t help but feel you must think your god very puny indeed if you need to stone a fool like the Reverend Mustache to death in order to protect said god’s delicate sensibilities…
@MarkedMan: In much the same way that some people get all apoplectic when an American flag is burned or when a piece of art like Piss Christ is displayed…
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday denounced the burning of Islam’s holy book by a pastor, saying it was serious setback to efforts to promote harmony in the world.
Hey Zardari, you’ve got way more important things to pay attention to, buddy. You don’t see Obama freaking out every time a Pakistani disparages Christianity, which probably happens a lot. Oh wait, that’s because Obama’s a sekrit mooslim. I forgot.
An Interested Party says:
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 14:26
@MarkedMan: In much the same way that some people get all apoplectic when an American flag is burned or when a piece of art like Piss Christ is displayed…
Morons are morons. If people actually rioted in the streets over Piss Christ, then I would concede that American Christian culture is no more mature than Pakistani Islamic culture.
MM: “…a nimrod like Terry Jones…”
Again I cite Azimov’s Guide to the Bible, Vol. 1, The Old Testament, p. 48. “Genesis 10:10 appears,..to make Nimrod an important king of the Tigris-Euphrates region,..”
A more appropriate handle for Jones would be dipstick.
Ernieeyeball says:
MM: “…a nimrod like Terry Jones…”
Again I cite Azimov’s Guide to the Bible, Vol. 1, The Old Testament, p. 48. “Genesis 10:10 appears,..to make Nimrod an important king of the Tigris-Euphrates region,..”
I didn’t know Nimrod was biblical, I thought he was more in the line of Greek myth. I did know there was a WW2 British warship of some sort called the HMS Nimrod. But I always liked the kind of vaguely obscene and insulting sound of that name and have used it successfully in that fashion any number of times. I should have known better than to try to pull it off here.
“Dipstick” it is.
Just for the record, in the Babble Nimrod was described as a “mighty hunter”, which is the allusion sarcastically employed against Elmer Fudd by the renowned classicist Bugs Bunny (also responsible for people like Terry Jones being called “Maroons”).
Mr. Jones, Take the high road. Please stop “inflaming the situation” with religious nut jobs. Your being disrespectful of their bible should be beneath you, Sir. Honestly, What’s your goal ?
I think the Pastor’s time would have been better spent reading his bible and being mindful of “Judge not lest ye be judged'”. Is this the action of a man who truly wishes to be a ‘Moral Example and Teacher’, or simply a man who hates and wishes others to join him in his intolerance? Shame on you Terry Jones! How about human compassion or perhaps a bit of Christian Compassion?
These people are going to start a religious war. we as muslims can never ever think of burning the Bible. We have great respect for the Holy Bible like our Holy book. This pastor and his followers are the real terrorists in the U.S.
These men profess to be Christians, but they are not true believers. They are extremists who are using the name of Christianity to insult Islam and gain attention to themselves. We must, as Christians, condemn acts such as these. God has the final authority and will judge them.