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The World's Greatest Threat?

— Filed under: Breaking News, People & Culture
i know it hurts to burn (one)

Tony Blair recently remarked that radical Islam is the world's greatest threat.  Although I agree that radical Islam is threatening, I don't think it's just Islam that's the problem.  I think it's all extremists that we should be concerned with. 

I read today that there's a church in Florida, called Dove World Outreach Center, that's planning to commemorate September 11 with "Burn a Koran Day".  They've created a Facebook page for the event, that states:

"On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm - 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!"

The church's pastor, Terry Jones, claims that "The goal of these and other protests are to give Muslims an opportunity to convert."  I don't understand how burning a holy book can do anything for the remembrance of victims of a terrorist attack, or for encouraging a Muslim to convert to Christianity.  It seems to me that it's only inciting violence and ignorance about another religion, and continuing the spread of fear regarding things we don't understand. 

Jones was interviewed on "Hardball with Chris Matthews", and went on to say "We want to send a very clear message that we do not want Sharia law and Sharia courts. That is what our international burn a Koran day is about."  What happened to him just giving Muslims the chance to convert?  It seems that every time someone questions Jones about the reason for burning the Koran, his answer changes.

The church has been denied the required burn permit for their event, simply because the city of Gainesville has laws against the open burning of books.  Despite the lack of permit, Dove World still plans to hold the book burning.

Fortunately many other religious organizations have spoken out against the book burning, and even the mayor of Gainesville, where the church is located, said that the church is a "fringe group and an embarrassment to our community."

If the bonfire does take place, what do you think will be the repercussions of such a display of hatred and ignorance?  Do you think it's just adding fuel to the fire for other extremists in the world to justify their own actions?

Winston Smith's picture

hornet's nest

In Indonesia, a very moderate Islamic country, one of the more extreme groups has pledged violence against the perpetrators.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/02/fpi-softens-tone-against-p...

I don't think this Dove group has any idea the hornet's nest that they are stirring up...

Anonymous's picture

Moderate would be ok. Sich

Moderate would be ok.
Sich gut versichern

Anonymous's picture

i dont agree with their

i dont agree with their sentiments but i agree with their right to do so. i love burning bibles myself

MrShaw's picture

Tony Blair is a .....

Horrible little liar who tricked a whole nation into believing he was a "Public Service type of Guy".  He has recently donated the profits of his book to The Royal British Legion, perhaps in an attempt to gain favour with the general public, who now are aware that he is a liar, a warmonger and the lackey of a previous idiot who also likes wars, and oil.  His book has heavily knifed Gordon Brown in the back, that is the man who fiddled the books to ensure Blairs popularity continued to hold (along with the devil himself Alistair Campbell), which was inevitably the reason that Brown himself fell, being the face of the mop-up scheme in the aftermath of Blairs reign.  Perhaps I could go as far as to say that the reason that country has its current laughable government situ is because of Tony Blair.  Also don't forget the suicide of a good man who was forced to lie for him, the losses of life and many more injuries sustained by British Soldiers, due to being in the back pocket of  "W".

Blair is now stating that he wishes to return to politics full time.  Nice timing Tony, you ditch your mess on somebody else, release a book killing him off in the eyes of the public, donate those profits to those that you sent to fight and die for your own gain, and now you want it all back.

The whole Islam is the greatest threat is just another line in his attempt to scare the public into supporting the money makers in the quest for control.  He disgusts me.  Without a doubt Islamic radicals are a worrying thought, but how about the extremely powerful Christian, scheming for his own gain?  Could also be labelled a radical, a fundamentalist?  It seems to me that Tony is a man of God on Sundays, and at the right hand of the Devil for the rest of the week.

Ethan's picture

lets look at the facts

Look first of all I agree the whole burn a koran day thing is a stupid and inflamatory idea but as far as examples of religious extremism happening in the world today it hardly stands out in my view, but as it is happening in America and anything slightly anti-muslim usually results in death threats its probably big news in the states.

The things that are happening to Christians in Indonesia are much worse and of more consequence than this. Just in the last few years:  In 2006 three Christian girls were beheaded as retaliation for previous Muslim deaths in Christian-Muslim rioting in Ind vvd

Or just last month, I would think this would be just as bad as what is happening in Florida and occurred in Java: For months, Christians in the industrial city of Bekasi have been warned against worshipping on a field that houses their shuttered church. They've arrived to find human feces dumped on the land and sermons have been interrupted by demonstrators chanting "Infidels!" and "Leave now!" http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsC9iYzKsPiBLkLIoRDH1N55Zk4gD9HKBG380

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsC9iYzRadicals from any religion are a threat to the very future of mankind and I in no way agree with the preacher in Florida but that is nothing compared to what occurs in other parts of the world even in Shiite versus Sunni conflict. I only wish we could have used all that money wasted in Iraq for an endeavor that would have advanced mankind. Hell we probably could have put a colony on Mars for all the money that was wasted there.

Winston Smith's picture

hatred

The burning of the Koran in Florida just seems a little stronger somehow... perhaps because it's specifically designed to stir up anger?  I'm not sure the other acts were designed to inflame anger.  Gain revenge or attack another religion, perhaps.

Or maybe it's because we feel like those in developed countries should have more "developed" attitudes and be more tolerant, set the bar higher if you will.  I guess that's not always the case.

Anony Mouse's picture

I live in Gainesville, and I

I live in Gainesville, and I don't support hate speech.  But in the USA, you can burn whatever you want, so long as it isn't legal tender or stamps.  Still, the line is thin between hate speech and freedom of speech, and this is going to be a major story...
 

A-Tonymous's picture

silly

Couldn't we just burn all of the holy books and be done with it? There's no wisdom in them that can't be found in reasonable, sane, secular sources. I'm all for burning books that paint me as a target so I don't disagree with the principle of the burning at all, the only problem is that I'm sure the burners are likely to be just as retarded and I wouldn't want to jump on their silly bandwagon.

Winston Smith's picture

Burning of ANY holy book

I was interested to read that the Indonesian hardline group protesting this burning has come out with an official statement saying (in essence) that burning ANY holy book is wrong.  So they won't tolerate the burning of the Bible by their members.

Ethan's picture

hopefully they will call it off

looks like he might call it off now, hopefully anyhow but its really turned into a huge media firestorm with many Muslim countries weighing in. I only wish the same countries and organizations would have or will in the future condemn acts such as the Beslan school massacre as publicly.

DangerouslyBeautiful's picture

Some university students in

Some university students in Indonesia still have quite strong perception of radicalism is the new way to show your faith to God<i was quite surprised with that statement. so I'm not surprised if a man like Tony Blair who doesn't seem to fore think what he has to say can come up with something like that.

Seize the skull!
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