Adolf Hitler was a Christian – a Roman Catholic in fact – yet under his reign of terrorism over 60 million people lost their lives in the conflict he created. Many of these were murdered in Nazi death camps.
So did people around the world burn bibles in protest?, no they didn’t and even though Hitlers genocide of the Jewish community which he claimed was in the name of Christianity, people accepted that this madman wasn’t a representative of the general Christian community but rather an extremist.
I read earlier today that Pastor Terry Jones from Gainesville – a part time preacher and full time furniture salesman – has organised a “burn the Koran” day. The utterly discusts me, I am a Christian yet I respect those who celebrate other religious practices, they might afterall be right and I could be wrong.
What Pastor Jones has shown is that there are some very ignorant people out there. I’d say that at least fifty of them live in Gainesville.
The publicity that has been generated from this story has probably set America back years with an image of red necks burning crosses on front lawns.
Yes those who carried out the terrible attacks were Muslim but they did not represent the entire Islamic world just like Adolf Hitler didn’t represent the Christian world.
So why can’t we just respect each others traditions and understand that it is a minority of each community that it responsible for the hurt and pain.
The BBC reports:
US church defiant despite condemnation of Koran burning
BBC News
A small US church says it will defy international condemnation and go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Koran on the 9/11 anniversary.
The top US commander in Afghanistan warned troops’ lives would be in danger if the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida went ahead.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the church’s plan was “disrespectful and disgraceful”.
Muslim countries and Nato have also hit out at the move.
And the US Attorney General, Eric Holder, called the idea “idiotic and dangerous”.
But organiser, Pastor Terry Jones said: “We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam.”
The controversy comes at a time when the US relationship with Islam is very much under scrutiny.
There is heated debate in the country over a proposal to build a mosque and Islamic cultural centre streets from Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks, in New York.
‘Significant problems’
Speaking at a State Department dinner marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Hillary Clinton condemned Pastor Jones.
“I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths,” she said.
Despite having a congregation of just 50, the plans of Pastor Jones’ church in Gainesville have gained worldwide notoriety, sparking demonstrations in Afghanistan and Indonesia.
Gen David Petraeus, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said on Monday that the action could cause problems “not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world”.
“It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems,” he said in a statement.
The Vatican, the Obama administration and Nato have also expressed concern over the plan.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday that “any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm’s way would be a concern”.
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen blasted the plans, telling reporters that burning Korans violated the Nato alliance’s “values”.
Pastor Jones – author of a book entitled Islam is of the Devil – has said he understands the general’s concerns but that it was “time for America to quit apologising for our actions and bowing to kings”.
Another pastor at the church told the BBC that members intended to burn several hundred copies of the holy book on Saturday evening, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in defiance of an order by the city not to hold an open air bonfire.
Muslims consider the Koran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the holy book is deeply offensive to them.
An interfaith group of evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders meeting in Washington on Tuesday condemned the proposals as a violation of American values and the Bible.
“I have heard many Muslim Americans say they have never felt this anxious or this insecure in America since directly after 11 September,” said Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America.
Claims that US soldiers have desecrated the Koran in both Afghanistan and Iraq have caused bloodshed in the past.
There were deadly protests in Afghanistan in 2008, when it emerged that a US soldier deployed to Iraq riddled a copy of the holy book with bullets.
And further lives were lost in Afghan riots in 2005 when Newsweek magazine printed a story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet.
The story later turned out to be false and was retracted by the magazine.
Photo courtesy of Fotolia







