If you thought Muslims couldn't get any angrier over their poor, abused Qur'an, wait until they get a whiff of Pastor Jones and his threat to take a match to their Holy Book. Last year, Pastor Jones created a firestorm when he threatened to burn a Qur'an, even as he decided not to set one on fire. Now if he does ignite one this time, watch for the hate to explode across the Muslim world, and watch for Obama to demand an apology from Pastor Jones.
Jones may be an idiot for burning any book, but his freedom to do so must be upheld. Free speech rules are for speech we disagree with, not speech we all agree with.
The organization Stand Up America Now, led and founded by Dr. Terry Jones, revealed on Feb. 22 that it will burn Qurans and images of the prophet Muhammad in protest of the Islamic religion, should Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani be executed for his Christian faith.
The American Center for Law and Justice announced on Tuesday, Feb 21 that the Iranian courts may have issued an execution order for Nadarkhani. Nadarkhani, who has been a pastor at a number of house churches in Iran for the past 10 years, has been imprisoned since October 2009, originally for protesting, but those changes were later controversially changed to apostasy and attempting to evangelize Muslims.
According to the Stand Up America Now website, the organization focuses on many social issues, with a special emphasis on standing up for Christian minorities persecuted in Islamic dominated countries.
On Feb. 23, 2012, Stand Up America Now, based in Gainesville, Fla., protested Islamic Awareness Month at the University of Florida, also located in Gainesville.
The organization’s president and founder, Dr. Terry Jones, describes the planned burning of the Quran as a form of protest which would “obviously get Islam’s attention,” saying that Christians “cannot just stand by and do nothing.”
“We have very little that we can do as a Christian community to protest the inhumane activities of Islam,” Jones told The Christian Post.
“It’s a type of protest to let the government know we are totally disgusted with their type of Shariah, with their activities. In fact, with the activities of Islam over the past 1,400 years,” he added.
Jones, who is also the pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, has previously sparked controversy over the Quran. In July 2010, Jones threatened to burn 200 Qurans on the 2010 anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City, New York. He deemed this controversial event “International Burn a Koran [sic] Day.”
Although he did not end up burning the Qurans, his threat sparked international controversy, causing riots in the Middle East and Asia.
Jones sparked controversy a second time when he held the “trial of the Quran” on March 20, 2011 at his Gainesville Church. Jones burnt a Quran while inside his Church, sparking massive riots in the Northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-i-Shairf. Protesters attacked the United Nations Assistance Mission, killing ten U.N. officials, according to ABC News.
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