Yeah, this guy is a piece of work. He's either saying that so he can save face as he backs down, or else he's going to later claim the mosque-builders went back on their word.
> We would right now ask no one to burn Qurans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.
I'm not sure how you can have a nice discussion with another religious leader when you basically say, "Well, you see, there IS a time and a place to burn the holiest of your religious documents. We just decided that we're a little busy this weekend."
I really hate to say this because I don't - in a million years - want to be seen in any way to be defending this nutjob, but, in the spirit of "Things You Can't Say"...
This entire episode has essentially proven his thesis - that Islam (or more accurately, a significant number of Muslims) are more inherently violent by definition. He didn't even need to actually complete the act, just suggest it.
Could you imagine a similar outcry of defense for any other segment of the population? Buddhists? Christians? Atheists? Republicans? Women? Germans?
We all know full well that Islamic sub-movements (properly representative or not) will lash out violently at a Koran burning (or Mohammed cartoon) in ways that other belief systems wouldn't even consider.
How does this not directly support the crazy pastor's statement?
>This entire episode has essentially proven his thesis - that Islam (or more accurately, a significant number of Muslims) are more inherently violent by definition. He didn't even need to actually complete the act, just suggest it.
A Christian religious leader threatens an act of aggression against a sacred text to make someone else do his bidding, and that somehow proves Muslims are violent??
No, it hasn't supported a damn thing about any of that nonsense.
In the last few weeks we've seen half the country get all up in arms (whipped up by the right-wing media) about a mosque 2 whole frickin blocks away from ground zero. In a condemned Burlington Coat Factory. Meanwhile, a bunch of other nutjobs are now asking to be praised for their moderation in not running out and burning a bunch of Qurans just to piss people off. All this during Ramadan, to boot.
So, my unofficial scorekeeping has christians as way crazier than muslims for the last few weeks.
Here is an idea - why don't you test your idea and try to do a public and well publicized Bible burning. Believe me there will be a much bigger outcry. You will probably get lynched before you can even light a match.
There are a lot of knuckleheads in the world. Best for all to just ignore them. This one called it off because he already got what he wanted--lots of attention.
This is a guy who runs a church with fewer members than Fred Phelps, the guy who pickets military funerals with anti-gay propaganda. Why are we giving this any of our attention? Flag it. Flag it with fire.
12 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 33.1 ms ] threadI'm not sure how you can have a nice discussion with another religious leader when you basically say, "Well, you see, there IS a time and a place to burn the holiest of your religious documents. We just decided that we're a little busy this weekend."
This entire episode has essentially proven his thesis - that Islam (or more accurately, a significant number of Muslims) are more inherently violent by definition. He didn't even need to actually complete the act, just suggest it.
Could you imagine a similar outcry of defense for any other segment of the population? Buddhists? Christians? Atheists? Republicans? Women? Germans?
We all know full well that Islamic sub-movements (properly representative or not) will lash out violently at a Koran burning (or Mohammed cartoon) in ways that other belief systems wouldn't even consider.
How does this not directly support the crazy pastor's statement?
A Christian religious leader threatens an act of aggression against a sacred text to make someone else do his bidding, and that somehow proves Muslims are violent??
In the last few weeks we've seen half the country get all up in arms (whipped up by the right-wing media) about a mosque 2 whole frickin blocks away from ground zero. In a condemned Burlington Coat Factory. Meanwhile, a bunch of other nutjobs are now asking to be praised for their moderation in not running out and burning a bunch of Qurans just to piss people off. All this during Ramadan, to boot.
So, my unofficial scorekeeping has christians as way crazier than muslims for the last few weeks.