Rev Terry Jones' Koran burning

It seems that the unknown pastor of a small, trivial, church, may, or may not, be going ahead with his burning of the Koran. See here.

You have to say that it's been a coup for this leader of a tiny church. A few days ago no one, even in the city he lived, knew of him and his church. Now he is front page news worldwide. You cannot buy that type of press. I've no doubt that this week will do wonders for his church numbers.

I believe in freedom of expression and of freedom of religion. People should be able to do, and say, what they want. Unless they are incitine hatred or violence. So the Koran, or the Bible, should be able to be burned. Any book should be. Any temple, church, or mosque should be buildable anywhere as long as it has planning permission.

However the fact that such freedoms should exist does not mean that they should be used. The so called 'Ground Zero Mosque' is legally able to be built where it is planned. However it is so offensive and insensitive that it shouldn't be situated at a place where the existing building was damaged by plane wreckage from the 9/11 attacks, nor should it be named after a symbol of Islamic domination of a Christian country. It is pointlessly extreme and provocative.

Similarly the burning of any holy book is an act which sets out to offend and inflame people. You may be free to do so but it is deeply insensitive and offensive to do so.

As it happens I hope that the Koran burning does not got ahead. Not because the book that would be burned is the Koran. I'd be against the burring of the Bible or any book holy to any religion. I'd be against the burning of any book. I love books. You would say it is may passion. As such I don't like to see any books destroyed.

It goes beyond that though, the mass burning of any books, or art is redolent of images of Nazism or Stalinism, or extreme Islam. As such it is deeply offensive. I would hope that no one engages is such a practice with so dark a past.

I hope the book burning is called off.

But

I find it offensive and stupid the way some Muslims and the US government have gone about persuading this minor pastor to call it off.

For some extremist Muslims to threaten violence and murder is much worse than the actual book burning. Such calls tar all Muslims, wrongly, with the taint of extremism. It also makes it much harder for the book burning to be called off. To call it off because of reasonable debate is one thing. To do so because of murder threats is another. If anything is going to strengthen the resolve to burn the books, this is it.

Secondly it is worrying that the President of the US is personally trying to make anyone to stop a totally legal act. For Obama to try to bully someone into giving up their constitutional rights is wrong.

What really gets me is the hypocrisy in this. The Muslim group behind the Ground Zero Mosque are using rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion to justify their build. But at the same time they, and other groups, seek to deny the same rights to a trivial church. You cannot do that as it makes you and your religion look hypocritical. It also inflicts massive political damage on the President.

Freedoms may not be acted on but they are important none the less.

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