Ace asks, “Should Terry Jones Have Burned That Koran?”
Ed Morrissey notes it’s not his fault, and James Joyner says so too.
But Joyner says something I disagree with:
Should Jones have burned the Koran? No. But not because doing so might incite some evil people halfway around the world to commit atrocities against innocents. Rather, he shouldn’t have done it was needlessly hurtful without adding any value to the debate. Indeed, aside from generating publicity for himself, he’s likely generated sympathy for Islam and disdain for churches of his ilk.
That’s exactly backwards. He shouldn’t have burned it only because it would inflame lunatics to kill people, and we don’t want to make things more difficult on our troops.
But as for “the debate”? What debate? The debate over whether or not I have to bow down to a primitive, alien religion and honor its symbols?
The proper thing is to burn ten Korans for each casualty inflicted by Muslim murderers. Now, I wouldn’t do that, because I am, in fact, deferring to the “murderers’ veto” and I don’t want to cause my fellow Americans any more difficulty than needed in Afghanistan.
But minus that? Minus that, I’d have a Koran on my barbecue this weekend.
The principle of politeness goes out the window when those who seek “respect” and “tolerance” are murdering people to get it. They’re not seeking respect; they’re seeking obedience through terror.
And some in old media seem quite prepared to give it to them, as Alana Goodman noted at Commentary yesterday:
This is an appalling tragedy. And it’s made worse by those who pathetically try to excuse the actions of murderers by placing the blame on the shoulders of others.
“Eleven people lost their lives so Terry Jones could burn a Koran and feed the 24/7 news monster,” wrote NBC reporter Luke Russert on Twitter.
The problem is where that line of thinking leads. If Jones is responsible for these murders, then Jyllands-Posten is responsible for the deadly Mohammad cartoon protests back in 2006. And Salman Rushdie is to blame for the rioting and fatalities that greeted the release of his Satanic Verses in 1989.
No, 11 people didn’t lose their lives so that Jones could burn a Koran. They lost their lives because some religious fanatics – driven by a twisted, feverish ideology – decided to murder them. And by failing to hold the true culprits responsible, we invite attacks on our freedom of expression – not just the freedom to burn a Koran, but to write, say, or do anything that offends their fragile sensibilities in the future.
And as Newsbusters noted in January, “Immediately After Arizona Shooting, MSNBC’s Russert Suggested ObamaCare Backlash Was the Cause:”
During MSNBC’s live coverage immediately following Saturday’s attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), correspondent Luke Russert theorized that the shooting was probably a violent reaction to the passage of ObamaCare, for which Giffords cast an affirmative vote.
“Remember, this is the deepest fear that was in the back of everybody’s mind going through the health care debate. A lot of members were threatened,” Russert warned during coverage of the shooting. “It looks sadly like it’s come to fruition today.”
ABC has a pilot they’ve shot titled Good Christian Bitches. If it goes into production as a series, and a Christian tosses a brick through the plate glass window of ABC’s Manhattan HQ with a note protesting the show — or does something far worse — presumably Russert will blame the TV network for causing their actions, right?
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